Growing Up Gracefully
by virtual-typewriter
Summary: "Even I find your antics annoying, Jamie Jam." "Well… That is sort of the point." The Marauders were some of the biggest pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen. How did they grow to become the people we know and love? What would have happened to them if there hadn't been one but two Potters at Hogwarts?
1. Quarrels

**AN: I started this story a couple of months ago so some of you might recognise it, but I have made a couple of changes to it and have decided to publish it again. It is basically the same story but I wasn't quite happy with the other one.**

 **The story is about the Marauders and their years at Hogwarts. It starts at the beginning of their Fifth Year and it is different from canon. I have made a change by inserting a new character into the story and the idea is to explore how things could have been different if this character existed. You'll soon see that some things have already changed. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it :-)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – Quarrels**

It was general knowledge to anyone who attended Hogwarts between the years 1971 and 1978 that Potter and Evans did not like each other. Neither Potter nor Evans did anything to conceal this fact. In fact they were very open about it – a bit too open according to some students. Their disputes had become known as Evans-Potter-Quarrels. It was not a particularly original name, but once it had become known there really was no changing it.

It was no surprise to any Hogwarts student when an Evans-Potter-Quarrel occurred. Evans-Potter-Quarrels were a part of everyday life at Hogwarts. There was the occasional student who went so far as to call them ordinary though there was nothing ordinary about them. An Evans-Potter-quarrel was never normal and the enactment never dull. It was as good as impossible to predict when such a quarrel might occur, and the topic of the quarrel required even more skill to foresee. When it came to Evans-Potter-Quarrels, there were only two things one could be sure of:

1) An Evans-Potter-Quarrel always led to another Evans-Potter-Quarrel

2) An Evans-Potter-Quarrel was no ordinary quarrel

The day our story begins was a rather sunny day. The weather was reasonably warm and it wasn't too humid. It was the first of September 1975 and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was gradually being filled with amiable chatter and happy students catching up with their friends. It really was a perfect day and therefore it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that an Evans-Potter-Quarrel was on the way. Except for the poor, unsuspecting first years, but no one really paid them any attention.

Among the first to arrive on the platform had been a pretty red-haired girl with her parents. She hadn't brought any siblings with her and almost as soon as she had crossed through the barrier to the platform, she disappeared onto the train. The girl's name was Lily Evans and she appeared some ten minutes later clad in a new school uniform and with a shiny badge glittering on her chest. Her parents, who had until then been looking rather uncomfortable and peering nervously around themselves, now sported similar looks of pride. If Lily Evans' sister had been present she would probably have left the platform right about now. As it was, she wasn't there, and the parents could fawn over their youngest daughter with no interruption whatsoever. Lily Evans was about to start her Fifth Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she had been chosen as a prefect.

Sure, Lily Evans had tried the badge on before – more times than she'd care to admit – but there was something special about wearing it on the platform. In her uniform. Where everyone could see her.

Presently, she was saying her goodbyes to her parents. Usually, she would talk with them until the train left, but this year she had prefect duties and Lily Evans was nothing if not dutiful. She would carry out her prefect duties to perfection. After the final hugs had been exchanged, she therefore re-entered the train, and her parents left the platform. They were both muggles and not entirely comfortable in the magical surroundings.

Among the last to arrive on the platform was an elderly couple along with two teenagers: a boy and a girl. Both of the teenagers had dark, messy hair and hazel eyes that gleamed mischievously. Their names were James and Jamie Potter and a couple of twins had never been more alike. The only thing that divided them was the fact that they weren't twins.

James and Jamie were cousins. It was a curious coincidence that their names were James and Jamie and that their appearances were strikingly similar but they weren't twins. They really weren't. Both cousins loved attention but if there was one thing they were tired of it was this particular question:

"So you really aren't twins?"

"No, we really aren't twins."

"You really are cousins?"

"Yes, we really are cousins."

" _Really_?"

"Are you _really_ in need of a hearing aid or are you _really_ very stupid?"

In the end it didn't matter if James and Jamie were twins or not. They had grown up together and they loved each other like siblings. James' parents were just as much Jamie's parents as they were his even though she addressed them as 'Aunt Euphemia' and 'Uncle Fleamont' and not as 'mum' and 'dad'.

Jamie was the daughter of Gardenia and Michael Smith. Gardenia Smith, née Chastain, was the sister of Euphemia Potter. Gardenia Chastain had been born a squib. She had grown to resent her sister, her parents and everything connected to the wizarding world. At the age of seventeen she had run away from home. She had eventually married Michael Smith, a muggle, and together they had had three children: Jeffrey, John and Jamie. For the first time in her life, Gardenia was truly happy and she had stayed happy for the first twelve years of her marriage.

Everything had changed the first of June 1967. It was Jamie's seventh birthday and Gardenia and Michael had spent weeks preparing the perfect party for their perfect daughter. The day arrived, as did the guests, and everything went splendidly according to plan. Until Jeffrey and John tried to ruin Jamie's birthday cake and Jamie made both her brothers vanish. In front of everyone. And by everyone, I mean _everyone_ : Gardenia and Michael, Michael's family, all of their friends and all of their neighbours. Even the dog across the road started to bark. Gardenia started crying hysterically but whether it was due to the disappearance of her boys or Jamie's accidental magic is still unknown.

After the initial chock everything was a bit chaotic until the wizarding authorities arrived and obliviated all of the guests. The brothers were retrieved and their mother threw her arms around them. They each got a big piece of cake while Jamie… Jamie had no idea what on Earth had just happened.

As the obliviating team was leaving, a wizard turned towards the distressed parents and said: "Your daughter will become a fine witch someday. It isn't everyday you see a seven-year-old vanish people like that."

That very afternoon Jamie was placed on the Potters' front steps along with a small suitcase, watching as her parents drove away. Little did she know that this would be the last time she ever saw them. At least for a very long time.

James Potter had found her a couple of hours later while playing in the garden. He had run into the house, where his parents were preparing dinner, declaring that there was a crying girl on the front steps.

That evening was the first time Euphemia had spoken to her sister since she ran away from home. It was also the shortest conversation she had ever had with her. She had refused to tell anyone, even her husband, what her sister had said about the poor girl, but it made Euphemia livid every time she thought about it, right until the day she died. A month after this disastrous conversation, Euphemia and Fleamont Potter adopted Jamie and since that day she had been Jamie Potter. The name Smith was never again uttered in the Potter-household.

Looking at her face, as she stood on the platform, there was nothing to suggest that Jamie was unhappy with her life. In fact, she looked rather content, standing next to her cousin.

"Don't get into too much trouble this year," Euphemia admonished the teenagers standing before her.

"It was like living in an owlery last year," Fleamont added, "All those letters… I'm not saying you shouldn't prank any Slytherins but try not to get caught quite so much, will you?"

James and Jamie high-fived behind their backs as Euphemia sent her husband a reprimanding glare. Afterwards they said their goodbyes, both of the teenagers promising to write. There really was no point in asking them to because all four of the Potters knew that James wasn't going to and Jamie would have done it regardless.

After a final hug, the cousins boarded the train. James was first aboard and disappeared from sight before Jamie had a chance to stop him. Not that she wanted to. As usual, Jamie had stubbornly refused any help as she tried – and failed – to lift her own trunk aboard. After a couple of tries, she angrily kicked the trunk, refusing to cry out as she hurt her foot. Her parents were lost somewhere in the crowd and she was left looking stupid. Of course it was her own fault, but Jamie chose to ignore this fact as she silently cursed James.

"Careful there, Jamie Jam."

Jamie had been about to ask some other student for help when a voice made her stop. She let out an audible sigh and turned around to greet her smug friend as he made a show of lifting her trunk aboard with a single hand.

"Hello Sirius."

Sirius Black was his usual smirking self, sending Jamie a wink before heaving his own trunk aboard as well.

"Hello to you too, my fair lady," Sirius smiled, "Had a good summer? I can see you haven't done anything to approve your muscle mass or lack thereof."

"I had a perfectly fine summer, thank you very much." Jamie chose to ignore his last comment, starting down the train in search of her cousin, leaving Sirius to manage his own trunk along with his own. "Why didn't you come to see us?"

She could hear Sirius sighing behind her but he didn't elaborate. He was supposed to come stay at Potter Manor for the last weeks of the holidays, but he never came. James and Jamie had both written but he ignored their questions every time, simply answering that he looked forward to September.

"I wish you'd tell us what was going on," Jamie continued, never one to back down when Sirius clammed up.

"You should learn to remember the feather-light charm. It'll save you a lot of time in the future. In fact, I seem to remember telling you the exact same thing last year. And the year before that."

Jamie turned around to send him an annoyed glare only to catch him winking at Paige Alton.

With a frustrated groan Jamie continued down the train corridor. Her best friend was good looking – there was no denying that. His black hair, stormy grey eyes and high cheekbones turned girls into mush just about every minute of every day. He had become even more handsome over the summer holidays. He was also several inches taller than Jamie now, something she was infinitely less pleased with. She remembered the days when she was the same height as the boys. She missed those days.

"In here." James interrupted her train of thought by appearing out of nowhere, grabbing hold of her arm and dragging her into the compartment that Jamie had nearly missed.

"You could have helped with the trunk," Jamie complained.

"But you said you didn't need my help." James sent her an innocent look, which Jamie returned with a displeased glare.

"Haven't seen Sirius have you?"

"He's flirting with Alton," Jamie replied.

"Who?"

"That Ravenclaw-girl," Jamie elaborated, "You know… The tall blonde one?"

"Ah…"

"Yes."

Despite his delay, it didn't take Sirius long to catch up with them. "There you are," he smiled, throwing himself into the nearest vacant seat. "Good to see you, James, mate."

"You too." James gave Sirius a short smile before asking, "Why didn't you come this summer? Mum and Dad kept worrying about you."

"Change of plans." Sirius shrugged noncommittally, quickly changing the subject, "Where's the food trolley?"

"The train hasn't even started moving yet." Sighing, Jamie grabbed for the rucksack James had been carrying and pulled out a brown paperback. "This is for you, from Aunt Euphemia. She wants to know why you didn't come this summer."

"Mrs Potter is an angel," Sirius grinned, yet again avoiding the question.

James sent Jamie a resigned look, indicating that she should drop it. She would, for now. But she would drag it out of Sirius eventually. The boy had never been able to keep a secret from her.

"I suppose Remus is up at the prefect carriage?" she asked at last.

"Probably," Sirius munched, his mouth full of chicken and salad.

"You are _lovely_ , you know that?" Jamie asked him, "Tell me… When you go on dates do you eat too, or do you just…"

"The girls don't care how he eats, Jams."

"They really don't," Sirius agreed.

"Well, they should."

The rest of the train ride continued in much the same fashion. James, Jamie and Sirius were eventually joined by Remus who pretended not to be proud of his prefect badge even though they all knew that he was. Jamie made sure to congratulate him while James and Sirius teased him. As a result, he sent her an appreciative smile. Sure, Jamie would rather be expelled from Hogwarts than become a prefect, but she knew how important it was to her bookish friend.

Everything was actually rather peaceful (compared to how their train rides usually were). It wasn't until Evans entered the compartment that things started going awry.

At the sight of the red-haired girl, James immediately sat up straight, abandoning the game of exploding snap, he had been playing with Jamie. His shift caused the cards to explode in her hands, and Jamie sent James a less-than-amused-glare.

"Evans," he smiled, hand running through his hair, "How's it going?"

The girl glared at James but didn't say anything. Jamie, whose hands now sported burn marks, turned towards Evans and exclaimed, much like her cousin: "Evans! How was your summer? I see you were made a prefect, congratulations!"

"Thanks…" Evans replied slowly, ignoring the summer-comment, before turning to Remus, "It's your turn to parole in a bit."

"Coming," he replied getting to his feet.

"Didn't you have a good summer?" Jamie asked, trying to get Evans to talk. She hated when people ignored her questions and Evans always ignored her questions.

"I did, thanks."

"Not going to ask how mine was? Isn't that a bit rude?" Jamie was frowning now – a frown she had spent hours practising to perfection.

James was sending her irritated looks, but Jamie really didn't care. Her hands still hurt, and she couldn't understand James' infatuation with the girl. Sirius was staring out of the window, looking bored. Sensing an oncoming storm, Remus had sat back down again, hiding behind a newspaper, preferring not to take sides. Remus actually liked Evans though Jamie couldn't understand why. Perhaps it was because she liked books and sweaters. She supposed Remus could use another friend that liked books and sweaters.

"Did you have a good summer, Potter?" Evans eventually asked, already on her way out, not waiting for the answer.

"No." Jamie's answer was short. It made Evans stop.

"You didn't have a good summer?" she asked.

"Oh, I did, sorry." Jamie sent the girl an apologetic glance, "Just wanted to see your reaction." The apologetic glance was quickly replaced by a dazzling smile that made just about everyone forgive the girl on sight. Of course, Evans was an exception.

"Why?" Evans placed her hands on her hips.

"Jamie," James warned, but she ignored him.

"Well… You obviously didn't care. I just tried to make you care a bit. A prefect should care about her fellow students' welfare, right?" She looked around, seeking confirmation from the others in the room. They were all ignoring her except for James who was glaring daggers at her, "I'm simply trying to make you a better prefect." Jamie knew that she was being unreasonable and behaving like a stubborn child but she really didn't like that girl. Everyone put her on a pedestal when in fact she was rude and didn't care about anyone that didn't follow her unwritten rules. At least, that was what Jamie had been telling herself for the last four years.

"Why?" Evans repeated her question.

"That the only thing you can say?"

"Jamie," James repeated but didn't say anything else. Jamie could do just about anything and he would forgive her.

"Don't you ever grow up?" Evans exclaimed, "Aren't we a bit too old to pick fights for no reason whatsoever?"

"You're the one raising your voice."

Evans was just about to walk away, and Jamie was almost about to let her, when Snivellus aka Severus Snape turned up. There was another good reason not to like Evans: she associated with the likes of Snape. How could she hate Jamie and her friends so much yet spend time with _him_? How could she of all people spend so much time with someone who thought she didn't have the right to be a witch?

"Now see what you did," James commented under his breath.

"Snape! How was your summer? I see you were made a prefect, congratulations!" Jamie repeated her exact words to Evans, only changing the name from 'Evans' and 'Snape'. Whereas Sirius and James bothered other people – Slytherins – by being rude towards them, Jamie always remained exceptionally polite. And cheery. She found that it tended to annoy people even more. People could yell at her, hex her, and annoy her to no end. Jamie would remain calm and collected and unnaturally happy all the way through. Some people secretly referred to her as Jolly Jamie. James, who knew her better than anyone, could count on one hand the times he'd seen her be truly angry. The best thing about it all was how she always managed to make Evans livid.

Snape ignored the question, simply whispering something to Evans, before walking away. For some reason or another, James and Sirius had decided not to join in on the fun.

"Your friend is rude, Evans."

"Whatever," she replied, before walking away.

"Wasn't that rude? I think that was rude." Jamie addressed the rest of the compartment, its occupants simply rolling their eyes.

"Even _I_ find your antics annoying, Jamie Jam."

"Well… That is sort of the point." Jamie stuck out her tongue, sending Sirius a teasing smile, before dropping the subject entirely. She would get back at Evans later. The day had barely started.

* * *

Unfortunately, Jamie did not get her sweet revenge.

She had not planned on spending her first night back at Hogwarts in detention, yet there she was, on her knees, scrubbing the floor of the prefects' bathroom. It wasn't even dirty because it hadn't been used in two months. It was, after all, the first day of school. Were the teachers even allowed to give out detentions on the very first day back? Wasn't there some sort of law against it, something to do with student rights and whatnot?

"Jamie, catch!" She was pulled out of her thoughts by a dirty cloth flying across the room in direction of her face. Luckily, James wasn't the only one with good reflexes in the family, and she caught it before it smacked her in the face.

"Honestly?" She looked up and sent her angriest glare in the direction of Sirius who most certainly was the one who threw it.

"You were looking melodramatic again."

"And so you decided to start throwing things at me? Honestly, you could have hurt me or something... You know what?" Inspiration suddenly struck her right there between cubicle four and five, "If you throw that bucket Remus is holding at my head I will have a legit reason for going to the Hospital Wing. There is no way Madam Pomfrey would send me back here. Go on, hit me!" She sat up expectantly.

"Jams, he's not going to throw a bucket at your head."

Jamie turned around to send an angry glare in her cousin's direction, "Let him make his own decisions!"

"I'm not going to throw a bucket at your head," Sirius told her, "If anyone deserves to get out of this detention, it's me, so you are welcome to throw it at _my_ head, if you want to, but I am most certainly not going to throw it at yours."

"That is so unfair, it was my idea!"

"Nobody is going to throw buckets at each other's heads, so you may as well stop arguing," Remus interfered, "If you concentrated on the work at hand, we would be able to finish this much faster."

Remus Lupin… Always the voice of reason.

They were all quiet for about ten seconds, before Sirius suggested, "How about _I_ take the bucket to the head, and _you_ help get me to the Hospital Wing, Jamie? Then we'll both have an excuse to get out of here."

"Deal."

"It is after all the gentlemanly thing to do," Sirius said to no one in particular as Jamie stood up to go get the bucket, "Can't just go around hitting Jamie Jam over the head."

"Sit down," Remus said sternly, "Nobody's going to hit anybody over the head with anything."

"You're such a kill-joy," Jamie mumbled but sat down all the same. "That is exactly why you were made a prefect."

"Well one of us had to become one," Remus said, "There are no other boys in our year in Gryffindor except for the three of us," he pointed at himself, Sirius, and James.

Remus Lupin… Couldn't really argue with the guy. Because Jamie had no answer she threw the dirty cloth at him and said, "Since this is actually _your_ bathroom, the least you can do is concentrate on the work at hand." He rolled his eyes but didn't answer. She was almost positive she could see a smile on his face as he turned away.

"What was so important anyway that you think you deserve to get out of this detention more than us?" James stuck his head out from under one of the sinks and looked at Sirius, "Wouldn't have anything to do with the blonde Ravenclaw who kept prancing past our compartment on the train, would it? What was her name again? Paige Alton?"

"The blonde one?" Remus had yet again abandoned his work… Lazy Lupin. To be fair though, he was the only one who had actually managed to do anything productive.

"Don't tell me you and Platinum-Paige have a thing," Jamie stared incredulously at Sirius, "Since when?" She didn't think that anything other than winks had passed between them. Then again, knowing Sirius, she should have suspected it coming.

"Since it-has-yet-to-happen," he said, "I am in detention, remember?"

"Oh…" She sent him a half-apologetic smile, but really, she wasn't that sorry. It didn't seem as though he was missing out on much. Platinum-Paige had the IQ of a five-year-old and she wasn't _that_ attractive.

"Bet she won't be too happy with you tomorrow," James grinned, and this time he became the one on the receiving end of Sirius' cloth throwing.

"Caught it faster than you," Jamie trilled under her breath.

"Yeah, right. We both know I'm the better chaser of the two of us."

Jamie gave James an incredulous glare. "In your dreams, perhaps."

"Guys," Remus interrupted the cousins, "It's bad enough that I am in detention on the first night back. Please don't subject me to your I'm-better-than-you-banter."

"Well I _am_ better."

"Jamie…"

Jamie glared at Remus but quickly lowered her eyes when he gave her the I-am-not-amused-glare. It was even more impressive than Jamie's frown but, of course, he had had a lot of practise.

They continued to clean the bathroom in silence. Usually, McGonagall's detentions weren't so bad. Normally, they just had to write a whole bunch of lines or make some extra transfiguration assignments. Today, though, she had decided that they needed to be taught a lesson. So here they were, on their knees, scrubbing the prefects' toilets on the first night back. James theorised that she wanted to give them a sufficient punishment from the start in the hopes that they would behave themselves for the rest of the year. Personally, Jamie thought that she meant to rub it into their noses that they didn't become prefects. Well, except for Remus who, of course, actually became a prefect. Perhaps she wanted to show him that he wouldn't have become a prefect if there had been other boys in Gryffindor. Except that that… didn't really make sense. It didn't matter though. None of them ever wanted to become prefects anyway. Except for Remus who pretended that he didn't but actually, secretly, did. But for the rest of them, prefect duties would only have taken up precious time that could be used to prank Slytherin Snakes instead.

The next time Jamie looked up was when Lily Evans barged into the bathroom. Honestly, she thought. It was their first night back. She had only been a prefect for three hours and already she had decided that ordinary bathrooms were beneath her. She really didn't like that girl.

When she noticed the Marauders she stopped and her mouth formed a little 'O'. Clearly she hadn't expected to see them here.

"What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like we're doing?" Jamie looked over at Sirius who rolled his eyes at her. Remus on the other hand looked just the teeniest tiniest bit ashamed and James was… well, he was being James. He ruffled his hair and tried to come up with something intelligent to say. Unfortunately for him, his hair ruffling turned out to be in vain as Evans turned her eyes on Jamie.

"Already in detention, Potter?"

"Trying to break a record," Jamie smirked, "Ten minutes slower than last year, but I do think we deserve points for serving it on our very first night back. In fact, I think that is an accomplishment in itself. It'll sure be hard to beat next year."

"Perhaps you should try not to break it at all," Evans all but sneered and Jamie could see how she longed to give her another detention right there in that exact moment. But of course she didn't. She was too well behaved. Perhaps Jamie would have liked being a prefect after all. She would have no qualms about handing out detentions. And Evans would have hated Jamie for getting the job.

"And Remus," Evans turned her attention to the infinitely redder-in-the-face occupant of the room, "I would expect better of you, now that you're a prefect. I had to show the first years to the tower all by myself."

"Oh no, oh Evans! How _did_ you find your way?" Jamie exclaimed with horror in her voice as Sirius let out an ill-disguised snort.

Evans turned her gaze back at Jamie, who had to admit that she admired that gaze of hers. But then Jamie was used to it, so she didn't let it bother her. Instead she sent the redhead her most dazzling smile and winked at James who was glaring daggers at her behind Evans' back. Jamie knew that he had made his mind up to try and ask her out but surely, it could only be meant as a joke. Cousins did not start dating their sibling's nemeses. Jamie most certainly would not start dating Snivellus Snape.

Evans was positively fuming by now but instead of riling her further Jamie turned her attention back to the tiles.

"It wasn't our intention to get a detention," James told Evans slowly, "It just sort of happened."

"Really?" Evans raised an eyebrow.

"Really," James replied but as Jamie glanced up at him and he glanced back at her at the same time, he instantly started to snigger and thereby ruined his innocent expression.

"You are absolutely impossible!" Evans stamped her foot for a bit of emphasis, "How the two of you," she pointed at James and Jamie, "Ever got into Hogwarts, I don't know. How you haven't become expelled will most certainly remain a mystery until the end of time."

Sirius was grinning in the background, making faces behind Evans' back.

"You, Black!" It seemed Evans saw him too, "You are not an inch better, and every time I look at your sorry face I thank Merlin that you weren't also born a twin!" With those words she stomped out of the bathroom and left the Marauders staring after the slamming door.

"We are not twins!" James and Jamie exclaimed at the same time, but Evans was already gone. They all looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter, even Remus who took her words a bit more to heart than the others.

"Mate," Sirius spluttered, "You may want to wait for a bit before you try your luck with her."

When they had stopped laughing, Jamie took a look around the bathroom. "Don't you guys think it looks clean?"

"Yes," James sighed, "But it doesn't matter. If we leave before Minnie allows it she'll just give us another detention."

"But it's the first day of school," Jamie whined and threw the last cleaning cloth at Remus' bucket, "It's not fair."

"Yeah, well, I think that Minnie thinks, it's fair." James sent his cousin a smile but it didn't make her any happier.

"Next year you can plan the back-to-school prank without me," she declared, "I won't miss another party."

"As if you'll be able to stay away," Sirius laughed, "You _looove_ pranking the Slytherins."

"That's because they _deserve_ it," she told him, "It serves them right. And after they've spent their holidays being pampered by their pompous parents their egos need to be taken down a few notches."

"Because you're not at all pampered," Sirius smirked.

As Jamie no longer had any cloths left to throw at him, she settled for her coldest glare. "I am not at all pampered."

"Of course not." Sirius winked at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"If anyone is pampered," James said and looked directly at Sirius, "It's you. Whenever you come to our house, it's like Jamie and I don't exist anymore."

"See, now you're exaggerating," Sirius said and puffed a strand of hair away from his eyes, "I don't believe it's possible to forget Jamie Jam. You, perhaps, but certainly not Jamie Jam."

The girl in question smiled at Sirius as James muttered something incomprehensible under his breath and finished off with, "Jerk."

"I still think Aunt Euphemia and Uncle Fleamont pamper you more than us," Jamie said a little while later, "Of course we can't be totally sure… You haven't been there since Christmas, and my memory has become a bit foggy…"

Sirius was saved from answering when the door opened once again and professor McGonagall entered.

"Well, well…" she looked around the room before fixing her gaze on the teenagers, "It looks decent so you are free to leave."

They all scrambled to their feet, as McGonagall continued, "I hope you have all learnt your lesson. I know better than to think I'll never see you in detention again but if you can stay out of trouble for the rest of the week, I'll consider it a considerable improvement." After this little speech she vanished the cleaning supplies before giving them their wands back and leaving the bathroom.

"That could have been worse," Remus mumbled as they all quit the bathroom shortly thereafter, "She didn't raise her voice once."

"That's because she thought the prank was funny," Sirius said and threw his arms around Remus and Jamie, "I'm almost positive I saw her snort."

"Minnie doesn't snort," Jamie disagreed.

"She most certainly does."

"I'm with Sirius," James declared, "She thought it was funny and that's why she didn't yell."

"Well…" Jamie stated, "The Slytherins did look rather smart with those unicorn horns."

"Perhaps she was just too tired to yell," Remus suggested.

"Nah… I don't think Minnie gets tired," Jamie commented, "I have never seen her tired. She is like a… a…"

"Vampire," James supplied, "That the word you're looking for?"

"Of course not you dunderhead," Jamie replied before stopping short.

"What?" Sirius who'd had his arms around Jamie stopped abruptly, awkwardly stopping Remus as well causing James to bump into Sirius' back.

"I forgot my tie," Jamie explained, "I took it off when we were cleaning so it wouldn't get soaked in the bucket… Just keep going, I'll catch up."

"Sure?" James sent her an inquiring look, and Jamie simply rolled her eyes.

"I can find my own way back, thanks," she said, before taking off running in the direction from which they had come. When she finally re-entered the bathroom she saw the tie immediately. She had thrown it haphazardly across one of the sinks and despite all her efforts it had become wet anyway.

"Typical," she muttered, leaving the bathroom, "Just my luck." Then again, it was nothing a short heating charm wouldn't fix.

"So you think McGonnagall's a vampire."

Jamie stopped short at the words and turned around. Rosier was standing right there, in the middle of the hallway, flanked on either side by Mulciber and Pettigrew. They must have been following them, the slithering Slytherin snakes.

"What do you want?" Jamie already had her wand out of her ropes. There was no point in taking any chances.

"Well…" Rosier looked lacily around the hallway before taking a little step closer, "At first I wanted to talk to you about the little stunt you pulled during dinner, but now I'm more interested in whether you really think McGonagall is a vampire."

Mulciber chuckled and took a step forward, so he was next to Rosier, "McGonagall a vampire?" he repeated, "That is the stupidest thing I've heard in a long while." He turned around to face Pettigrew before continuing, "This is the reason why the likes of her should not be allowed in here. Her unintelligence lowers the IQ of the rest of us."

"You should work a bit on your eavesdropping skills." Jamie replied, trying to sound helpful but not quite succeeding, "Is it really that hard to identify a joke?"

"I would be careful, if I were you." Mulciber lowered his voice. "We wouldn't want any accidents to happen, would we now?"

Jamie opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. James was the smart one when it came to retorts. Jamie was generally okay, but not right now it seemed. Times were changing and the Slytherins were braver than they had been the year before.

"Nothing to say?" Mulciber asked.

Because she didn't know what else to do, Jamie turned around and continued down the hallway as if she hadn't been stopped at all. She willed herself not to walk to fast, at least not until she was out of sight. Then she ran the whole way back to the Common Room. Luckily, the snakes didn't come slithering after her. Not tonight anyway…

She found her friends in the sofas in front of the fire.

"Found your tie okay?" James asked. He was engaged in a game of exploding snap with Sirius and didn't look up. If he had, he might have discovered the closed off look on her face.

"Yeah," Jamie replied, sitting down next to Remus who was already engrossed in a book.

"Is something the matter?" he asked, looking up from the pages.

"No, I'm fine." Jamie sent him her most reassuring smile before grabbing a magazine from a nearby table.

She _was_ fine. She wasn't going to let a couple of Slytherins ruin her evening. Especially not Rosier, Mulciber and _Pettigrew_. Honestly… And she most certainly was _not_ going to tell the boys about it. Sometimes she really hated being the girl. She wasn't going to let them defend her as if she couldn't take care of herself. She was just as well equipped as they were, although it didn't make it any easier being a muggle-born. Especially not a muggle-born with the Potter-name. Was it even possible to be a muggle-born and a blood traitor at the same time? According to the Slytherins it was. And it wasn't a good thing.

 **AN: So… That was the first chapter. I really hope you like it, and I would love to hear what you think. Constructive criticism is always appreciated :-)**


	2. Severus Snape

**AN: The second chapter is done! Thank you so much for your lovely reviews and for following this story – it really means a lot :-) I hope you'll continue to like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters etc.**

 **Chapter 2 – Severus Snape**

* * *

It started of awfully and it ended even worse. Jamie's alarm clock had mysteriously been deactivated and she was late. Really late. Like she-was-so-late-there-was-no-more-bacon-left-late. And that was just an awful way to begin a day. And then there was the fact that she had a run-in with Severus Snape in the Great Hall. Literally. They rounded the same corner at the same time and Jamie was knocked to the ground, her books spilling all over the floor.

Jamie apologised profusely whereas Snape… Snape was silent. As the grave. He didn't apologise, he didn't help her to her feet, and he didn't help her gather her books. He sneered at her and then he walked away. Sure, Jamie probably wouldn't have helped him to his feet either, had the roles been reversed, and it was doubtful whether or not she would have helped him gather his books. But she did apologise. She wasn't James, after all, or Sirius. She _was_ tactful when she wanted to be, even though it concerned Severus Snape.

Jamie had learned from experience that it was best to treat people with the respect they deserved – when they deserved it. If you sneered at someone _all the time_ , your credibility would start to crumble. Jamie had made a point of only annoying other people when she thought they deserved it. It was rather often, sure, but at least she didn't sneer at people after accidentally knocking them to the ground.

She passed Snape upon the entrance to the Great Hall, talking to everyone's favourite prefect, the wonderful Lily Evans. So that was why he was in such a hurry. Honestly, couldn't the girl see that the snake was madly in love with her? Perhaps she wanted him to be madly in love with her… A girl couldn't be that oblivious… Could she?

When she finally made it to the breakfast table practically _all_ of the food was gone, exactly as she had predicted. If it hadn't been for Remus she wouldn't even have gotten a piece of toast. As it was, a little jam-covered stack was waiting for her, next to a glass of pumpkin juice.

"You're the best," she said before sitting down and taking a huge bite. What would she do without Remus?

"Anytime, Jammie."

Her name had inspired a lot of nicknames over the years – some better than others. Now, in her Fifth Year, James had settled for 'Jams', Sirius had settled for 'Jamie Jam' and Remus had gone for 'Jammie' because of her favourite biscuits: Jammie Dodgers. Jamie, obviously, had had no say in the matter.

Aside from the Snape-incident and the no-bacon-incident everything was normal. Remus was reading the Daily Prophet, James was going over a couple of new Quidditch tactics, and Sirius was making eyes at some girls.

Evans and Snape had parted ways, and she had joined her friends at the Gryffindor-table, laughing and giggling at something or someone… Jamie didn't really care.

Towards the end of breakfast, she nudged Sirius, whispering, "You should take a look at Crouch. If she turns her head to look at you one more time, she'll become so dizzy she won't be able to stand."

"I'm not interested in Crouch."

"I should hope not," Jamie scoffed, "But it's still funny to watch."

There were five Fifth Year girls in Gryffindor: Jamie, Evans, Mary MacDonald, Marlene McKinnon, and Gabriella Crouch. Normally, Gryffindor girls got on very well with each other. That wasn't the case with Jamie and the others. Needless to say, the feud between herself and Evans had had a huge impact on her relationship with the rest of them.

Jamie spent next to no time with her dorm mates. Marlene was the only one whom she occasionally talked to and that was simply because she was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team along with James and Sirius. Curiously, Jamie wasn't part of the team. No one really knew why. She was good at flying, she was good with a Quaffle, and she most definitely wasn't afraid of heights. It was one of the mysteries of Jamie Potter – and there were a lot of them.

When Marlene had joined the Quidditch team in her Fourth Year, Jamie and Marlene hadn't spoken since First Year. After spending time with James and Sirius (and therefore, inevitably, Jamie) Marlene realised that the girl wasn't as bad as Lily made her out to be and the two became sort-of-but-not-really on speaking terms with each other. Because Lily most definitely wasn't on speaking terms with Jamie, and Marlene was good friends with Lily so… Yeah, that pretty much explained itself.

Gabriella Crouch was Lily's absolute best friend. Naturally, this made Jamie Gabriella's enemy as well. What Gabriella didn't know was that Jamie had hated her even longer than she had hated Lily (and that was saying something). Gabriella had this sugar-sweet voice that she always used when addressing Jamie. She was nearly a year older than Jamie and had always considered the Potter-girl to be childish. According to Jamie, there was nothing wrong with being childish – especially not when you were eleven years old! The two girls were simply too different.

Mary MacDonald was different from the other girls in the way that she had disliked Jamie since their very first day. Mary was a very quiet girl whereas Jamie was loud and boisterous and friends with the boys. Mary was much more of a Lily-person – and Lily a Mary-person – so the two were good friends. Jamie had nothing against Mary except for the fact that it was impossible to get a straight answer out of her. About anything. At. All. There were quiet girls and then there was Mary. The girl was always so afraid of saying the wrong thing that she'd say nothing at all if anyone spoke to her. At least she didn't when Jamie tried.

The Fifth Year girls could therefore be divided into two groups:

1) The Lily-group consisting of Lily, Gabriella, Mary, and Marlene

2) The Jamie-group consisting of Jamie

Jamie, who'd always been a tomboy, had no qualms about this. Sometimes she found herself wondering what things would have been like if Lily Evans hadn't been a Gryffindor. Perhaps she'd have been friends with Marlene, but there was no way she would have been friends with Mary and Gabriella. Nothing much would have changed, really. Except that she wouldn't have been fighting so much. Jamie hadn't always hated Lily Evans. In the beginning they had been nothing but ordinary classmates. Sure, they had never been the best of friends but they had at least tolerated each other. Jamie couldn't remember when exactly she had started hating Lily Evans, but when she went home after First Year, she had definitely hated her. And the feeling had been mutual.

It was therefore a mystery to Jamie how James could claim to like the girl. Watching him watching Lily, she couldn't for the life of her see what was so interesting about her. She was so anti-James it was ridiculous. She hated pranks and parties. She despised Quidditch. She thought that he was nothing but an arrogant bullying, toe-rag. And she hated his very much awesome cousin. How could James even _consider_ dating her when he knew how Jamie felt about her? This was a question she had started asking herself more and more often.

She'd asked Sirius late one night a couple of weeks after the bathroom-incident. James had gone to bed early leaving Jamie to ask all the questions she couldn't while in his presence.

"I'm sure he isn't serious about her," Sirius had replied, clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation.

"Really?" Jamie wasn't so convinced. She had been watching him and the looks he sent the red-haired witch. It was _all the time_. It was during classes, during dinner, in the hallways, _and_ in the common room. While he was with his friends and that was simply rude.

"Jamie, why would James suddenly be interested in Evans? I'm sure it's just part of some elaborate prank."

"Has he told you about this prank?"

"No. But you know he's been toying with her for years." Sirius didn't even raise his eyes from his transfiguration assignment. Why couldn't he take this seriously? Perhaps it really was nothing. Perhaps Jamie simply _was_ being paranoid.

"But then why wouldn't he tell me about it?" she asked at last, "It's beginning to feel as though he's pranking _me_." A sudden thought made her sit up straight, " _Is_ he pranking me? Are you lying to me? It _is_ a prank, isn't it? Why are you guys pranking me? This isn't funny!"

Sirius pushed his assignment away with a groan. "First of all," he stated, "You _are_ pretty funny when you start overreacting like this. And second of all… We are _not_ pranking you. " He made a point of looking directly into her eyes as he said this, "I don't know what his deal with Evans is, but have you considered just asking him?"

"Oh, I can't ask him," Jamie replied quickly.

"Why not?"

" _Because_ ," Jamie answered, "It would imply that I'm accusing him of wanting to date my nemesis."

"But that's exactly what you are." Sirius looked at her in a way that indicated that he didn't understand her at all.

"Well, I don't want _him_ to know that." Jamie rolled her eyes. Wasn't that pretty obvious?

Sirius gave a small sigh before answering. "You really are a piece of work, you know that?"

"Sure. That's what makes me so loveable." Jamie then sent Sirius a dazzling smile, before leaving him to get some well-deserved sleep.

* * *

The first lesson of the day was Potions, where Jamie sat next to Sirius. She was always next to Sirius doing Potions. Remus had insisted on sitting next to James so he could talk him out of sending hexes after Snape. Potions was the class in which Evans sat next to Snape and, apparently, that was too much for James to handle. It was funny, Jamie had never thought of it like that before but now… It became more and more suspicious.

"Tell me again why we always end up having Potions with the snakes," she asked Sirius as they sat down.

"I'll bet 5 galleons it's because of Evans and Snivellus. Slughorn just wouldn't get through the week if his two favourite pets didn't have the chance to brew potions together."

"It's a pity she wasn't in Slytherin," Jamie commented, "A lion and a snake don't fit as well together."

Jamie had always thought that the relationship between Evans and Snape was downright weird. Sure, Snape wasn't as obvious about the whole blood-purity-nonsense as some of the other Slytherins. Whether it was because of Evans or because he wasn't a full-blood himself, Jamie didn't know. Aside from Pettigrew, Snape was the only half-blood in Slytherin. There were _no_ Muggle-borns. None at all. Which was weird, because Slytherin traits included cunning, resourcefulness, and ambition. Sure, Salazar Slytherin hated Muggle-borns and perhaps the Sorting Hat took this into consideration but there must have been Muggle-borns who exhibited these traits. Being a Muggle-born didn't automatically make you a goody good person. There were bad Muggle-borns out there (and Jamie wasn't just talking about Evans).

Jamie remembered being surprised when she found out that Snape had become the Slytherin prefect. He wasn't exactly the leader-type. Then again, perhaps it was a good thing that none of the other boys were chosen. But Jamie really thought that he was as bad as the rest of them. The fact that he was so quiet, never publically displaying his true beliefs, made him dangerous. He even had Evans fooled, and Evans was – as much as it pained Jamie to say it – quite intelligent.

Pettigrew could have been chosen as prefect, too. Sure, Peter Pettigrew was pretty dense and a follower, but couldn't he change if given the chance? Jamie even talked to him on the very first day of school. He had seemed nice, then. He had had no idea, which house he was going to be in, and he had been _so_ nervous. So nervous, in fact, that Jamie had suggested they go for a walk around the platform instead of just standing still. Jamie, herself, had been absolutely terrified, and James had had a terrible cold so he wasn't much fun (he had a nasty habit of always getting colds in the middle of summer). He had collapsed in a compartment the moment they had arrived and then proceeded to fall asleep.

"Jamie Potter!"

"What?" Jamie was pulled out of her thoughts by Sirius.

"Did you not hear a word I just said?"

"Sorry…" Jamie sent Sirius an apologising look but he simply shook his head before pointing to the blackboard.

"You can get the ingredients," he said, "I'll set up the cauldron."

"Whatever…"

* * *

Tranfiguration was up next and that class was always exceedingly boring. Not only did Professor McStrict teach it, it was also ridiculously easy. Not that Jamie was complaining or anything. It left her with plenty of time to do nothing. Or chat with Remus whom she was sitting next to.

"Just look at him," she whispered, "Are you looking?"

"I'm looking," Remus answered without lifting his eyes from the book.

"He's looking at her again."

"I see that."

"What do you suppose it means?" Jamie could be very persistent when she wanted to. She still hadn't come up with a plausible explanation for James' weird antics. Sure, he'd been asking out Evans for years, but besides the occasional declaration of love, he'd never paid her any attention. It had always been to annoy her. At least that is what Jamie thought, but now he was actually _looking_ at her. It was driving her insane.

Instead of answering her, Remus merely pointed at his Transfiguration book, which he was trying to read. Didn't he understand that there were tings more important than Transfiguration? Besides, Jamie was sure that he'd already read the entire book.

" _She_ is looking at Snape," Jamie continued. "Do you think she likes Snape? I don't understand what she sees in the git. He's nothing short of revolting. Of course, they're both the same amounts of annoying."

"Jamie, don't say that."

"But they are…"

"For Merlin's sake, Jamie… What has Lily Evans ever done to you?"

Jamie was slightly taken aback by Remus' outburst, but didn't let it show. She should have known better than to try and gain sympathy from him. He had never had anything against the girl. And now James liked her, too. Honestly, didn't they see how wrong it all was?

"She is too much of a stickler for the rules," Jamie answered, "She's a dull tattletale who cannot take a joke. And she's friends with Snape. And in case you haven't noticed, Snape is just as bad as the other Slytherins, who don't think that you or I or _Lily_ should be allowed to go to Hogwarts. By being friends with him she condones it and that is _not_ acceptable in my book."

"Of course Lily doesn't condone it," Remus protested, "I admit that it is a bit… peculiar… that she is friends with him. But they knew each other from before Hogwarts and Lily is very loyal."

Jamie scoffed before answering. "Of course she is, I am _so_ sorry for questioning your darling Lily's loyalty."

"Miss Potter, may I ask you to remain quiet?"

Jamie looked up only to be met with professor McGonnagall's look of disapproval. Had she heard her? Probably. Had the rest of the class heard her, too? Judging by the looks that were being sent her way, that would be a yes… Evans was glaring daggers at her, as was Crouch and MacDonald. Not to mention Amelia Bones, Hufflepuff Prefect. Oh, and Marven Denholm who'd had a crush on Evans since the dawn of time. James, who was sitting in front of her, made a point of not looking at her.

Perhaps she should have listened to Remus and concentrated on her Transfiguration book. She kept silent for the rest of the class.

* * *

"Think that was funny, do you?"

Jamie had been waiting for Evans to confront her ever since Transfiguration. It was after dinner and the two of them were alone in their dorm. Jamie spent next to no time in her own dorm, but she'd needed a book to finish off an essay and now the redhead had her cornered.

"Evans!" Jamie spun around to face her, putting on a cheery face. "Had a good day?"

"No." The girl crossed the room in about five steps and stopped in front of Jamie, hands on her hips. "You embarrassed me! In front of all our classmates _and_ our Head of House."

"Evans, Remus and I were discussing your loyalty. Sure, it _is_ a Hufflepuff trait, but considering the fact that we were in a classroom full of Hufflepuffs that is not necessarily a bad thing. You don't think badly of Hufflepuffs do you? Of course, you do have a soft spot for Slytherins but I thought that that was simply because of Snivellus."

"Don't call him that!"

"Oh, sorry, but I'm sure he would have been delighted to hear that you don't like Hufflepuffs. You'll fit right in with the snakes. Imagine if you _had_ been in Slytherin. Your friend would have been delighted and _I_ would have been delighted… Of course, the rest of the house would have done everything in their power to make sure that you dropped out or… something, but that doesn't bother you, does it? Since you're friends with Snivellus? Tell me… Is he allergic to shampoo or is he just really very – "

"I asked you to shut up!"

"You asked me to not call him Snivellus, which I, admittedly, ignored, but – "

"Shut up!"

Remus had asked her to apologise but Jamie just couldn't get herself to do that. Snape hadn't apologised to her this morning, and Evans had been with Snape so… Still, Jamie chose to do as she said, then sent her an innocent smile and continued, "I'm sorry. Did I say something that offended you? You _are_ friends with Snape aren't you? Severus Snape? The boy who goes around knocking other people to the ground and then don't apologise to them because they're Muggle-borns? Of course, he wouldn't refer to us as Muggle-borns…"

"Severus would never say that," Evans answered, her face as red as her hair. "The fact that you'd even refer to – such a word – " She was spluttering by now. She could barely form the words, but Jamie wasn't sorry. It was about time someone tried to open her eyes and make her realise what a horrible person Snape really was. If she couldn't see that, she didn't deserve someone like James.

"I'm simply telling you what happened," Jamie answered, quieter this time, "Call me what you want, Evans, but I am not a liar. You, of all people, should know that. When I don't have an honest answer for you, I don't say anything at all."

Evans was saved from having to come up with an answer when the door opened and Crouch walked in, effectively ending the discussion.

* * *

Remus was the only one of the boys sitting in the Common Room when she came down. James had gone to bed early. He was mad at her, which was the only thing she regretted about the encounter. She hated it when James was mad at her. The worst part of it was that he never showed it. He would go on as usual, but she would always _know_. It would be easier if he'd just yell at her and get it over with. Hopefully, he would have forgotten all about it when he woke up again, though it was doubtful.

"Did you apologise to her?"

Remus had put away his assignment to look at Jamie. He had been nagging her about it since lunch, but Jamie couldn't see why she had to apologise. She had said nothing but the truth, and if Evans couldn't handle the truth that was really her own fault.

"We talked," Jamie answered vaguely.

"Jamie…"

"I'm sorry, Remus, but she irritates me _so_ much, I can't help it. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had that run-in with Snape…"

"What run-in with Snape?"

"Nothing."

"Seriously, what run-in?" Remus was trying to get her to look at him, but she refused to do it. She shouldn't have said anything in the first place. It was all Evans' fault, and now Remus wouldn't give up until he'd found out whatever it was he was trying to find out. He would analyse her for weeks on end and she'd start snapping at him, and then he'd be even surer that something was going on. In the end, he'd enlist Sirius and James and James would blow a gasket if he thought something was wrong.

"It was nothing, really, he was just being Snape. Nothing out of the ordinary…"

"I wish you'd tell us what's going on."

" _Nothing_ is going on, honestly Remus…" Why wasn't this conversation over already?

Nothing _was_ going on. At least, nothing that hadn't always been going on. The problem was that Voldemort was growing stronger, her Slytherin classmates had become older and bolder, and they kept sending her these _looks_ , and Jamie knew what Snape had been thinking about her that morning. The problem was that as long as no one said anything, she couldn't defend herself, and that irritated her more than anything. Being able to defend herself was very important to Jamie.

"James won't love you any less, you know."

"What?" Now, Remus didn't make any sense.

"I mean…" Remus gave a short sigh, running his hand through his hair before continuing, "James falling for someone – be it Lily Evans or some other girl – won't mean that he'll stop loving you. He cares about you more than anyone else. You'll never have to compete for him, Jamie. _They_ are going to have to compete with you, but you will _never_ have to compete with them."

Jamie didn't answer him, pretending to be absorbed in her book. She preferred not to talk about stuff like that as it always made her uncomfortable. It had to be a side effect from being kicked out by your parents at the age of seven.

* * *

 **AN: So, tell me what you think :-)**


	3. The Pumpkin Incident

**AN: Once again, thanks for the lovely reviews and for following the story :-)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 – The Pumpkin Incident**

Halloween had always been a big deal in the Potter household. It was the first thing Jamie had celebrated with her new family. Since the first of June, when her parents abandoned her, there had been no cause for any celebration. Halloween was the very first occasion and as a result thereof, Fleamont and Euphemia had done everything in their power to make it memorable. Needless to say, the transition from one family to another hadn't been easy for Jamie. She had been left in a strange house amongst strange people and she had had no idea why. Her parents hadn't exactly stopped to explain why they were doing what they were doing. It had been about the hardest conversation of Fleamont and Euphemia's lives, trying to explain to Jamie why her parents no longer wanted to have anything to do with her. When they'd told her that she was a witch, Jamie hadn't believed them.

James was the only one whom she'd occasionally talk to. When his parents had told him that Jamie was his cousin, he'd walked right up to her, declaring that she would be his best friend from that moment on.

"I've never had a cousin before," he'd told her, "We're going to have so much fun together." He'd then proceeded to ask her which Quidditch team was her favourite.

It had taken Jamie months to start acting normally around the Potters and years before she was completely used to the idea of magic. It wasn't until she'd seen Hogwarts for the very first time that she'd accepted who she truly was. It was the floating candles in the Great Hall that did the trick. Minutes later she had been sorted into Gryffindor along with James, Sirius, and Remus.

"What do you think, Jamie?"

"What?" Jamie realised too late that she'd stopped listening to Sirius. The boys were discussing the best way to steal Hagrid's pumpkins and apparently Sirius had come up with an idea.

Instead of waiting for an answer, Sirius merely rolled his eyes and continued eating. "You're absolutely impossible, you know that?"

"So you keep telling me. Twice a day."

'Stealing Hagrid's pumpkins' sounded worse than it really was. In their First Year, Sirius had dared James to steal a pumpkin from Hagrid's garden and display it in the Great Hall for all to see on Halloween. The Marauders, who'd imagined Hagrid to blow a gasket in the middle of the feast, had simply laughed it off, declaring that next year the perpetrators would have a harder time doing it. Since then it had become sort of a game… Each year Hagrid would make it harder and harder for anyone to enter the garden and each year the Marauders would try. Usually, they succeeded. In Third Year they almost got caught but so far they had managed to steal at least one pumpkin every year.

It wasn't the sort of thing the Marauders normally did. Usually, their pranks would be a bit more exciting and less… childish. Funnily enough, the Marauders had never been punished for stealing the pumpkins. No one ever uttered their names in connection with the Pumpkin Robberies though everyone knew who was behind. Not even Evans battered an eyelid.

"Do you have any ideas?" Remus asked, to which she shook her head.

"We'll figure something out. We always do."

"Of course," James agreed, "But wouldn't it be funnier if, this year, we actually managed to steal more than just one or two."

"Have you forgotten how enormous they are?" Jamie asked, "We can't shrink them after that shield he asked Flitwick to place on them last year. What do you suppose we do? Carry them? _I'm_ certainly not going to."

"Then don't. I'm sure we'll be able to manage without your help."

"That's not what I said, James."

"That is what you implied, _Jamie_."

James still hadn't forgiven her. It had surprised her, in the beginning, because he usually didn't stay mad for long. Now, she was simply annoyed. She had no idea the number of times she'd insulted Evans and now, suddenly, she was to be punished for it? If he didn't want her insulting Evans he should just say so. Confess to her that he was falling for her and get it over with. Until then, she would not apologise.

Jamie looked down at her own piece of pie. Suddenly, it didn't look that delicious anymore. Stupid Evans and stupid James and his stupid feelings had ruined her appetite.

"You can have my pie, Sirius." With those words she rose from the table and left before anyone had a chance to say anything.

* * *

"You're starting to worry me," Jamie stated the following Saturday. She was in the library with Sirius of all people, and they'd been there since lunchtime.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Jamie repeated, "What's with all this studying?"

"You're studying."

"I've always been studying," Jamie replied, " _You_ usually don't. Do you finish your assignments? Sure. Do you occasionally open a book? Sure. But you don't _study_. That book, the one you have right there… It's not even part of the curriculum." Jamie leaned forward, tapping the book in front of him.

"Of course I study, Jamie," Sirius replied, moving the book so it was out of her reach, "Besides, I've always been studious when it comes to Transfiguration. I don't know what Minnie would do to James and I if we didn't study."

"Whatever." Jamie lowered her eyes and turned a page in her Potions book. She really hated Potions. Not only did she usually have to spend the classes listening to Slughorn gush over Evans and Snape… She also sucked at it. Most of the classes ended with her potion going up in flames. She had no idea how many times she'd written the words "Dear Uncle Fleamont and Aunt Euphemia, will you please send me another cauldron?"

How her next sentence sounded tended to vary. She always had a couple different versions ready:

a. "I was feeling generous and gave it to charity"

b. "It was most unfortunately stolen" or

c. "James blew it up again"

"Sirius, can you take a look at this for me?" Luckily, her friends were pretty good when it came to Potions. Instead of waiting for an answer, she smacked the book down on top of his, accidentally making a stack of papers fall to the ground.

"Oops." She bent down to gather them only to be stopped by Sirius. He grabbed hold of her hand, making it impossible for her to retrieve the papers.

"What?" She sent him a questioning look. She was simply trying to help. There was nothing secret about schoolwork. Unless it wasn't schoolwork, of course…

"What are you hiding?" she asked slowly.

"Nothing." The answer came too fast. He was most certainly hiding something but what in Merlin's name would he be hiding from _her_?

"I don't believe you," she stated, a small smile playing on her lips, "What are you hiding, Sirius Black? It better be good because I've been studying all day and I could use a distraction. Is it a way to steal the pumpkins? Don't worry, I won't laugh if it includes a unicorn. I've actually been thinking about it myself… Unicorns should be able to enter the shield right? And they can carry heavy things, too, no problem…"

"Jamie, it's nothing." Sirius still wouldn't let go of her hand and they were both hanging awkwardly off the side of their chairs, both reaching for the papers, both getting nowhere.

"Okay, now you're just making me even more curious…"

"Jamie, drop it, okay?"

Well, since they were friends… "All right, whatever. I won't look." As if.

Jamie leaned back in her chair, letting him gather the papers by himself. He sent her an appreciative smile, thanking her.

"You're very welcome," she replied. Sirius was right; she was a pretty awesome friend. Too bad he didn't seem to know her at all. When he turned his back, she grabbed for the book he'd been reading moments earlier. The boy really should have known better.

"What have we here," Jamie mused out loud, rising from her feet to get further away from the table.

Sirius, who'd noticed his mistake a second too late, was right behind her. He really looked quite ridiculous, trying to get the book from her while simultaneously persuading her not to open it. Just what was he trying to hide from her? The cover was black with no title on it so she had no clue what was inside.

"Jamie Jam, I know you want to look but really… You don't."

Jamie laughed as she ran round a table leaving him on the other side. "You need to do better than that, Black."

"I'll buy a whole bag of Acid Pops for you."

"Tempting… But not good enough." She opened it up on a random page, holding it out in front of her to taunt him.

"Jamie, _please_." Sirius was pleading now and Jamie had to admit that it was a bit pathetic to watch.

"Fine," she said at last, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't read it and I won't."

Sirius paused. "James wouldn't want you to."

"I'll repeat my earlier statement: not good enough, loser." She laughed before turning her back to him and opening the book. At first, she couldn't see what the big deal was. It looked like a perfectly ordinary Transfiguration book except… Sirius tore it out of her hands, but it didn't matter. She wasn't laughing anymore.

* * *

In the end, the fight between James and Jamie ended without the word 'Evans' being uttered once. James had had no other choice than to forgive her. Not when Jamie found out that he and Sirius had spent the last _two years_ trying to become Animagi. And. Not. Tell. Her. About. It.

"We know that it's illegal…"

"You think I care about that?" Jamie yelled, "Why in Merlin's name didn't you include me in the plans? Huh? Didn't it occur to you that _I_ would want to become an Animagus too? To help Remus out during his transformations? Why didn't you tell me?"

James and Sirius looked uncertainly at each other without answering.

"Why!?"

"Because…" James tried at last, "Running around with a werewolf can be pretty dangerous. I wouldn't subject you to that."

"And by 'that' I suppose you mean _Remus the wolf_?"

"Of course not. I was talking about the danger…" he trailed of awkwardly.

"It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I am a girl, would it?"

"Of course not."

"Of course not."

Jamie rolled her eyes at their answers. Of course it had _everything_ to do with the fact that she was a girl.

They were in the grounds, by the lake, and they'd had the same conversation for the last fifteen minutes without either of the boys giving her a plausible explanation.

"Two years," she repeated, "Two. Blasted. Years. Does Remus know?"

"No."

"No."

Jamie raised an eyebrow at the boys, making James spill the beans.

"He knows," he admitted.

"So it was just me," she stated, "How typical."

It really was typical of them, always thinking that she needed their protection, always trying to shield her from things. The reasonable part of her brain tried telling her that they did it because they cared about her and didn't want anything to happen to her. The other part kept repeating 'two years' over and over while an ABBA song kept repeating itself in her head. As a way of trying to make her feel at home, the Potters had bought her a Muggle radio and it really wasn't helping at the moment.

"How did you even make Remus think that this was a good idea?" And why hadn't he enlisted her help trying to persuade them not to do it? Probably because he knew that she'd think it was a brilliant idea, but as if she was going to admit that now…

"He doesn't think it's a good idea," James admitted, "But we haven't really given him a say in the matter."

"When did you even come up with it?" Jamie asked at last. Why hadn't she come up with it first?

"We saw Minnie transform in Third Year, right round around Christmas, and then, when we learned about Animagi, it just sort of came to us."

"It just _sort of came_ toyou," Jamie repeated. Again, why hadn't she thought of it herself?

"Still doesn't explain why you didn't include me." She wanted them to admit that it was because she was a girl. She wasn't going to let them get away with a mumbling apology this time. They were trying to become _Animagi_!

She didn't think the boys were going to say anything when Sirius made the mistake of opening his mouth.

"It's not as if you'd be much help anyways," he said, "Your Patronus is a rabbit… What good can a rabbit do when confronted with a werewolf?"

Jamie was saved the task of having to hit him when James smacked him over the head. She wasn't going to dignify that question with an answer. She wasn't going to say anything at all. With a lack of anything better to do, she walked away. She realised that she really needed to start working on the whole lack-of-retort-situation. It would soon become embarrassing. Boy, was she mad at Sirius. And James. There weren't words to describe it.

* * *

In the end, James, Sirius, and Remus stole the pumpkins without Jamie. And got caught doing it. James couldn't even muster the energy to care.

It had been a week sine the incident by the lake and Jamie still wasn't talking to them. She sat with Remus in every class. Not that she was speaking to him, but apparently she was less mad at him than at himself and Sirius. He supposed it was pretty difficult to stay angry at Remus. Actually, he couldn't remember a single time he'd been mad at his book-loving friend.

There was a Halloween Party in the Common Room but for once James wasn't in the mood to party. Sirius, who didn't seem bothered by Jamie's anger at all, was off dancing. James had tried dancing but it was half-heartedly. He'd tried asking out Evans. Twice. He'd been yelled at. Twice.

Now, he was sitting in the corner, trying to come up with a way to make Jamie forgive him, but little good it did him. He'd already apologised about a gazillion times, and she'd ignored him every single time.

"She'll come around, you know."

James didn't look up as Remus sat down next to him. He wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone, especially not Remus. He'd warned him that Jamie wouldn't be happy when she found out about it, but James hadn't expected her to ever find out. Why should she? Once they'd managed to become Animagi, he and Sirius would simply sneak out after Jamie had gone to bed and they'd be back before breakfast. It was only once a month. She would never have found out if it hadn't been for Sirius… What was he thinking, reading that book right in front of her?

"What is Sirius doing?" Remus asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"I don't know," James replied. Honestly, he didn't really care.

"No, I mean…" Remus pointed at something out of James' sight, "It looks as if he's fighting with someone. Is that Davies?"

"What's Davies doing here?" James was on his feet within seconds. Blake Davies was the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and played chaser like James. Their relationship had never been particularly… close. If Jamie wouldn't talk to him, get the inevitable fight over with… Perhaps he'd become less frustrated if he fought with Davies. What was he doing in the Gryffindor Common Room anyway? "Where is he?"

"He…" Remus hesitated before continuing.

"What?"

"He's over by the fireplace," Remus said slowly, "He's with Jamie."

"He's WHAT?"

He left Remus before his friend had a chance to say anything – or stop him. He reached them sooner than he would have thought humanly possible considering the crowd in the Common Room. His cousin was on the couch, arms firmly crossed. Sirius was standing in front of her, gesticulating wildly. Davies was gone.

"Sirius…" James tapped his friend on the arm, making him aware of his presence, "What in Merlin's name was Davies doing here?"

"Ask Jamie," Sirius replied icily.

"What?"

"Yes."

"You're kidding."

"No."

"How dare he?"

"Excuse me?" Jamie's voice was as cold as ice, "How dare _you_!"

The iciness in her voice made alarm bells go off in James' head. He'd done something wrong but what?

"Jams…" James lowered his voice, trying to explain, trying to make her understand. "He was hitting on you!"

"Yeah." Jamie looked from James to Sirius and back to James again, "That was sort of what I was hoping he would do."

James opened his mouth, about to protest, but his cousin cut him off.

"You're off with girls all the time," she said, "Why am I not allowed to talk to other boys, huh? I have the same rights as you."

James gulped. She was starting the boy-girl-discussion all over again. "It's not the same," he tried to explain. For Merlin's sake, he was just trying to look out for her! It was Blake Davies they were talking about!

"Why?"

And now she was yelling. Neither James nor Sirius answered.

"It's the same problem over and over again, isn't it?" she asked, "I'm a girl. So what? Stop treating me differently. Honestly, what you're doing… That's downright discriminating, just so you know. All these Pure-bloods telling me that I don't deserve to be here. What you're doing that's…. That's just as bad!"

James felt a sudden surge of anger, "Who's been saying that?" he demanded to know. Did people go around telling her that she had no right to be here? Was that what people said whenever he wasn't around? Jamie had just as much right to be at Hogwarts as anyone else did.

"That's not what we're doing, Jamie Jam." Sirius was infinitely calmer than James.

"But it is!" She was standing now, too, "What is the difference? The Slytherins don't think I should be here because of my genes. You don't think I should speak to boys because of my biology. Tell me the difference, please, I can't wait to hear it."

"It's not because you're a girl," Sirius tried, ignoring her outburst as well as her blood-status-comments.

"Why then?" Her eyebrows were raised and her hair was _everywhere_. When had curls become fashionable again, anyway? Wasn't everyone's hair straight like… yesterday?

"It's because you're better than those other girls!" Sirius yelled, effectively shutting her up, and making James forget everything about hairstyles and Slytherins.

"You're better, okay, Jamie? You deserve better than drunken boys hitting on you at parties. If you're really interested in someone just… talk to them when they're sober, all right? And about the… other thing," he trailed of, looking around to see if anyone was listening, "Yes, we kept it from you, but only because we're worried about you. Perhaps it was because you're a girl. Perhaps it was because we care about you too much to get you mixed up in our stupid ideas. If you really want to go talk to Davies, go talk to Davies. But do it for the right reasons and not because he's the one that'll piss us of the most." With those words he walked away.

That wasn't exactly what James had been planning to say. He'd never thought about Jamie dating before and would definitely prefer it if she didn't. The more reasonable part of his brain told him that Jamie was right and that, _of course_ , she should be allowed to talk to other boys if that was what she wanted. But why did she have to want it? And since when had Sirius started comparing or… not… comparing Jamie to other girls? Did Remus compare her to other girls as well? James slowly narrowed his eyes but decided to drop the subject for now. There were more important things to take care of… Like who had been going around telling Jamie that she wasn't allowed to be at Hogwarts. Although he doubted whether Jamie would want to talk about that now so perhaps he should just save that for later, too. Speaking of Remus, where was he? He always knew what to do… Afraid of angering her further, James left Jamie on the couch.

* * *

 **AN: As always, I'd love to hear what you think :-)**


	4. Midnight Excursions

**AN: Here it is! The fourth chapter :-) Thank you all so much for taking the time to review and for following this story :-)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 – Midnight Excursions**

Meals had turned into rather sombre affairs. The four Marauders kept sitting together – they had to uphold their image – but they didn't talk much. It was so quiet, in fact, that other students started to notice that something was amiss. Lily was sure that they were up to something, of course, and had decided to keep an eye on them. Gabriella was sure that Sirius had finally realised how madly in love with her, he was. "He's lovesick, that's why he's so quiet," she kept telling Mary. Gabriella knew better than to say anything to Lily who'd simply roll her eyes at her. Lily couldn't for the life of her imagine why her friend was interested in him. "Black is just as bad as Potter," she'd say. Naturally, Mary didn't really believe Gabriella's theory but decided to support it anyway. It was more comforting than thinking that the Marauders were up to something. Marlene was the only one of the bunch who didn't really care. "They're weird," was all she said, "If you're not part of their little group you may as well give up now trying to figure out what they're up to." And she was right, of course.

It hadn't dawned upon the girls that the Marauders could actually be _fighting_. Then again, they hid it pretty well. They didn't argue, they didn't yell, and they kept hanging out together. Jamie still hadn't forgiven James and Sirius. James had apologised to her a hundred times but she had ignored him every single time. The problem, Jamie thought, was that he didn't _understand_. He didn't understand how much it sucked to be excluded because she was a girl, and his non-apologies only made her even angrier. Sirius hadn't apologised, mainly because he didn't think he had anything to apologise for. He'd told her how he felt and he stood by that.

Remus was sort of in the middle of it all without being part of it. Jamie had forgiven him for not telling her about the Animagus-secret, and he hadn't been part of the whole Davies-fiasco. He could understand Jamie's frustration, but he understood James' as well.

"Want some more juice? Jamie?"

Remus was holding out a jug towards her, sending her a smile. Apart from the bacon-conversation they'd had upon sitting down it was just about the most interesting conversation of the entire meal.

"No, thanks," she replied without lifting her eyes from the newspaper, or rather _James'_ newspaper. Jamie never bothered reading the newspaper whereas James actually liked it. Why? She wasn't entirely sure. Now, the problem for James was that Gilbert always brought the cousins the newspaper. Gilbert was James and Jamie's shared owl and it had the habit of always flying towards Jamie before anyone else. It had gotten the habit during First and Second Year, the time _before_ James began reading the newspaper. Jamie was the only one who wrote home and therefore she was the one receiving the letters. Since then, the habit had stuck. It didn't matter if Gilbert was carrying anything for Jamie or not.

Unfortunately for James, getting the newspaper meant asking Jamie for the newspaper. And the two of them didn't talk anymore. James had grown tired of apologising without being forgiven. Jamie, personally, couldn't see why this bothered him. The non-answers certainly didn't seem to bother him while repeatedly asking out Evans. If he wanted his newspaper, he should just ask for it. And apologise for being such a male chauvinist. Then, if he really wanted to appease her, he could throw in a bag of Acid Pops as well. And promise never to speak to Lily Evans again. If that was too much for him, he should begin to acquaint himself with the fact that he would never see his newspapers again. End of discussion.

"Anyone made that Potions essay yet?" Sirius cut through the silence. Fights never bothered him that much. It had probably something to do with the fact that he'd grown up fighting with his parents. At least that's what Jamie thought. She wasn't entirely sure when Sirius had begun realising that his parents' view of life wasn't necessarily the right one. Something like that must be hard for a child. And he rarely ever talked about it.

On their first day at Hogwarts, Jamie and James had met Sirius on the train and they'd sat together despite coming from very different families. They hadn't exactly discussed which houses they would like to be put in, but it was a good sign that Sirius hadn't been put off by the thought of sharing a compartment with two 'blood traitors'. Therefore, Jamie and James had ignored the fact that he came from a dark wizarding family. Her Aunt and Uncle had taught Jamie and James not to let prejudices stand in the way of forming new friendships. Neither cousin had fully understood the meaning of the words back then. It wasn't until later in life they'd realised just how important it was.

"Almost," Remus replied, pulling Jamie out of her thoughts, "I'm struggling a bit with the ending."

"James?"

"You know I haven't," James answered without looking up from his bowl of oatmeal. Seriously, who ate oatmeal when there was bacon on the table? And eggs? Everything was better than oatmeal…

"Jamie?"

Jamie looked up from her newspaper once again, meeting Sirius' eyes.

"You're honestly asking me if I've finished my Potions essay?"

"Right," Sirius looked away, "What was I thinking? I've seen Vanity receive better grades than you…"

Jamie's expression instantly darkened. "Why don't you go ask _her_ , then?"

"Perhaps I will."

"By all means, go do it." Jamie glared at him, silently daring him to rise from the table and ask her.

Cheryl Vanity was a Slytherin in their year and she was about the stupidest girl in class. Jamie was excited to see what would happen when she failed all of her OWL's. Her parents would probably bribe someone to let her continue on to NEWT level anyway. She came from an old Pure Blood family with connections everywhere. Jamie couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her after NEWT's. Of course, she was a Slytherin and didn't really need an education. Perhaps she'd marry straight away.

"You want me to do it right now?" Sirius asked calmly, getting to his feet.

"Is that a problem?" Jamie raised an eyebrow.

"Not at all. Of course I'll do it if it'll please the lady. As I said, it can't be worse than asking you." With those words he grabbed hold of his bag, rose from his seat, and started walking towards the Slytherin table. It was situated on the other side of the hall, as far away from the Gryffindor table as possible. Jamie had often wondered whether this was intentional or simply a coincidence. Perhaps she could read about it in _Hogwarts, A History_. She owned a copy of it, didn't she? Or had she lost it? Again, it didn't really matter. Evans was sure to have one. She'd never notice it was gone and if she did, she certainly wouldn't suspect Jamie of stealing a _book_ of all things.

James was following Sirius with his eyes, Remus merely rolling his, sending Jamie a disappointed look.

"He started it," she told him defensively, lowering her eyes to the newspaper, pretending not to watch Sirius out of the corner of her eye. He was nearing the table… He really _was_ going to do it.

Vanity was sitting next to the other Slytherin girls: Savannah Accrington and Drusilla Malfoy. Jamie didn't know a lot about Accrington, whereas Malfoy… Sirius' cousin, Narcissa, was engaged to Drusilla's cousin, Lucius. Nasty family the whole bunch of them. Jamie would have felt almost sorry, daring Sirius to go over there, if it hadn't been for the fact that he was being an even bigger obnoxious brat than James.

* * *

For the first time ever, James, Sirius, and Remus had been caught trying to steal Hagrid's pumpkins, and the half-giant was enjoying it immensely. He kept grinning and chuckling quietly to himself. James knew it wasn't about the pumpkins. It had never been about the pumpkins, it had always been about winning. Now, he had won, and the boys had lost.

"Yeh know," he told them the following Friday night, "I'd always though' Jamie would've bin with yeh."

McGonagall had let Hagrid decide on a sufficient punishment, and, as a result thereof, they were currently wandering through the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night. James was under the distinct impression that no students were allowed in there – especially not in the middle of the night. Hagrid didn't really seem to care about that rule. "Tha' wouldn' bother yeh," he'd said and then gone straight in without waiting for an answer.

Of course it didn't bother the boys. It was the Forbidden Forest after all! It was simply the fact that it became less and less exciting to be in it when it wasn't forbidden after all…

"She wasn't," Sirius answered without further explanation.

"Perhaps tha' was why yeh got caugh'," Hagrid chuckled, "Couldn' do it without 'er, eh?"

The boys refrained from answering. That was exactly what Remus had said after they'd got caught. James had secretly thought so, too, but refused to admit that he couldn't steal a _pumpkin_ without the help of his – although darling – extremely annoying cousin. Not that she was having a much better night. She was serving a detention with Slughorn because of a fight she'd started with Pettigrew of all people. James shuddered at the thought of having to spend an entire Friday night with Pettigrew. Then again… Jamie wasn't currently looking for Fire Crabs in the Forbidden Forest. Perhaps he'd take Pettigrew over the Fire Crabs. But only because it was raining.

"Tell me again how many we are looking for?" James whispered after about ten minutes of silence. Hagrid had asked them to keep quiet.

"Could be abou' five," Hagrid answered, "Could be abou' twenty-five…"

"Twenty-five?" Remus repeated, "Twenty-five Fire Crabs?"

"How in Merlin's name did Kettleburn loose twenty-five Fire Crabs?" Sirius exclaimed. "We'll never find those Fire Crabs."

"Keep yeh voice down," Hagrid shushed, "Yeh're not goin' ter be o' much help if yeh keep yellin' like tha'."

Professor Kettleburn was the Care of Magical Creatures teacher. He was a very reckless fellow, and James wasn't sure how good he actually was. As far as he was aware, Dumbledore hadn't hired him. The previous headmaster, Dippet, had hired him and by that time the man must have been 300 years old.

It was going to be a long night…

* * *

There were seven people in detention. Jamie and Peter Pettigrew were there as a result of a dispute they'd had in Potions. Kammi Boot, a fellow Fifth Year, was there as well. Jamie quite liked the girl. She was a no-nonsense sort of person _and_ she was a beater on the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. Needless to say, she was incredibly strong. Then, there was one Third Year present, a Hufflepuff boy whom Jamie did not know the name of, and two Seventh Year Slytherins: Alecto Carrow and Rabastan Lestrange. They were quite awful if Jamie were to tell the truth. Rabastan was the younger brother of Rodolphos Lestrange who had quite recently married Bellatrix Black, a cousin of Sirius'. She remembered because Sirius had been invited to the wedding. He had jokingly asked Jamie if she wanted to accompany him before tearing up the invitation and setting it on fire.

The last person in detention, and by far the most surprising, was Lily Evans. She was probably there for some noble (boring) reason – defending a First Year against a bigoted Slytherin, or something – but Jamie decided to bother her all the same.

When the prefect sat down in the front row, Jamie rose from her own seat at the back of the classroom and took the empty place beside Kammi, directly behind Evans.

"Jamie," the girl nodded in greeting, "Haven't seen you in a while. Planning something big, are you?"

In response, Jamie shook her head, pointing at Evans in front of them. No, she wasn't planning anything, but she didn't want Evans to overhear anything concerning her life. The girl would have a field day. Perhaps later she'd tell Kammi, but not now. Following her gaze, Kammi nodded.

Jamie opened her book bag and retrieved her Potions book, a blank piece of parchment – a.k.a. her Potions essay – and a nearly empty pot of ink. Where had all the ink gone? Hadn't she bought a new pot in Hogsmeade just the other day? She would have to write to her aunt and uncle, asking for a new one. She just had to find her quill…

" _Dear Uncle Fleamont and Aunt Euphemia, I hope you are both well. You will not believe what happened the other day. James…"_

"Hey, Evans!" Jamie put away the parchment, directing her attention towards the redhead. She didn't turn around.

Jamie pushed her glasses further up her nose, leaning closer to the desk in front of her. "Evans!" she repeated loudly, "What'd you do this time, eh? Got caught stealing test answers _again_? I thought I told you to wait for a while. Even you can't be _that_ desperate?" Evans had turned around by now, and she did not look amused. "… My bad, sorry," Jamie continued with an apologetic-but-not-really-smile. "Won't say another thing about it, then." Now, the prefect was glaring daggers at her. Everyone in the classroom was looking at them.

"I don't know why you're here," Evans answered coldly, "But I know why I am – "

"Congratulations!" Jamie cut in, sending Evans a sympathetic smile, "That's a start, I guess…"

"I know why I am here…" Evans continued, "And it most certainly is _not_ because I stole test answers."

"You don't have to defend yourself," Jamie told her understandingly before lowering her voice to a stage whisper, "I don't know how it feels, but I can imagine that failing isn't particularly funny. Really, I'll say no more about it. Forget I even said anything in the first place."

Jamie turned her attention back towards Kammi, ignoring Evans who had begun seething, opening and closing her mouth in turn.

Kammi simply rolled her eyes sending Jamie an exasperated-but-fond smile. She didn't have anything against Lily Evans, but was better friends with Jamie and therefore chose not to intervene when it came to their disputes.

Slughorn entered the classroom a few moments later. You could see his surprise upon discovering Evans but chose not to comment. After telling them to do their homework, he disappeared. Slughorn was always like that in detention. Really, you couldn't ask for a better detention than a Slughorn-detention. He'd look in on you every once in a while but he wouldn't stay in the classroom. He'd ask you to do your homework, but he had no way of checking how much you actually accomplished because he had no idea how much you'd done in advance. Evans, of course, already had her textbooks open, eager to do what she was told. Jamie sighed, looking around in hope of some entertainment, but there was no one remotely interesting in the classroom… Unless… She could always bother Pettigrew…

"Pettigrew!" Jamie yelled out his name as if she'd only just discovered him. She gathered her still-closed books and rose from the table, ignoring Kammi's questioning look. "What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?" She slid into the seat next to him.

Instead of answering, Pettigrew sent her a dumbfounded look, undoubtedly wondering why Jamie would ask such a question. They were, after all, serving detention because of the same thing. In return, Jamie sent him a dazzling smile. "Done anything fun lately?" she asked instead.

Again, Pettigrew gave her a non-answer, simply shrugging his shoulders.

"Come on," Jamie coaxed, "You must have _something_ to tell." She was vaguely aware of the Slytherins watching the pair of them. Pettigrew looked as though he'd rather be anywhere but next to Jamie.

"Honestly… You're not really good at this, are you?" Jamie sent Pettigrew another smile, opening her Potions book. It was almost sad to watch. She couldn't help but wonder what would have happened to him if not for that incident the very first day of school… He'd been so nice until… Perhaps he wouldn't have been a Slytherin at all. Then again, where did he fit in? He wasn't particularly smart so Ravenclaw was a no-go. He wasn't brave or daring _or_ particularly chivalrous so certainly not Gryffindor. That only left Hufflepuff. Perhaps he could've been a good Hufflepuff. Then again… If someone was capable of treating other people badly simply because that was what he saw other people do… Sure, Hufflepuffs were loyal and those 'other people' were his friends, but still… Was he simply a poor kid that wanted to fit in? Of course, it didn't excuse his behaviour. Jamie was torn. It was practically impossible to figure that boy out. Sighing, she closed her Potions book, gathered her things once more and went back over to Kammi.

"That was a rather short conversation," the Ravenclaw remarked.

"I don't know," Jamie replied, a gleam in her eyes, "Had we been anywhere other than detention he would have run away before I opened my mouth."

Kammi bit back a laugh as Slughorn re-entered the classroom. He went up to the teacher's desk, grabbed a goblet, and then left the classroom again.

It was going to be an incredibly long detention and it was all Sirius' fault. Not only had he talked to the foolish girl, Vanity, he'd sat down with her, too, eaten the rest of his breakfast with her, AND followed her to Potions. When they entered the Potions classroom, he had sat himself next to her, leaving Jamie with Vanity's lab partner: Peter Pettigrew. She had been glaring daggers at Sirius from across the classroom, but he had ignored her. She wouldn't have started yelling at Pettigrew if it hadn't been for Sirius. She wouldn't even have been sitting next to the dunderhead. Two people, who were as bad at Potions as Jamie and Pettigrew, should never be forced to make a potion together. It had been almost unfair of Slughorn to give them a detention. He should have realised that nothing good could come out of the arrangement.

Next time she got her hands on Sirius Black…

* * *

Jamie had sneaked down to the kitchens after detention. Her stomach was rumbling and she was in dire need of food. And chocolate. Or something. She could sneak it up the boys' dormitory and eat it there. She couldn't eat it in the Common Room or her own dormitory as Evans would be there, and the prefect would most definitely rat her out. She believed it was one of her duties as a prefect to make life as miserable for her fellow students as possible. At least that was how Jamie saw it.

The boys would probably still be in the forest with Hagrid so they wouldn't mind. At least they wouldn't if they weren't fighting. As it was now… But what did it matter? They'd never discover that she was there. She'd be gone before they came back.

Jamie stopped abruptly upon hearing steps further ahead, silently cursing her luck. Getting caught in the middle of the night with a bag full of stolen goods from the kitchen? A bit not good…

She was already planning an escape route, when someone rounded the corner and ran straight into her. It was Lily Evans. Even more not good.

Jamie immediately shushed the redhead, putting a hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to keep her quiet. "Someone's lurking behind the corner," she whispered.

"What?" Evans squeaked, ignoring Jamie's plea of silence, instead shrugging the girl off of her, "Don't touch me."

"Don't talk!"

"Is it a teacher?"

"I don't know," Jamie answered through gritted teeth, "Does it matter?"

"Yes! I'm not planning on getting a detention because of you, Potter!"

"I shouldn't think so," Jamie replied, "I've discovered you're very capable of acquiring those all on your own."

"Seriously." Evans had begun panicking. "What is it going to look like if anybody sees us? They're not going to stop and question us. They'll see _you_ and assume that we're up to something."

"Sneaking around after dark usually means that you are up to something," Jamie told Evans helpfully, walking closer to the corner, "But don't worry. The last thing _I_ want to do is to get caught with you. Now, will you please shut up?"

"What are you even doing outside?"

"I was in detention."

"It's 1 am!" Evans screeched, "Detention ended three hours ago."

Really? She had been talking to the elves for longer than she thought. "If that is the case… What are _you_ doing out here?" Jamie countered in the hopes of quieting her. She carefully peered around the corner and let out a sigh of relief upon discovering that there was no one there. Whoever had been standing there must have walked away.

"I am a prefect," Evans answered with an air of authority as if that explained everything.

"Not this time of night, you're not," Jamie snorted, "If you get caught you'll be in the same amount of trouble as me."

Evans didn't answer but walked around the corner, continuing down the corridor in silence. Jamie suddenly wished that she wasn't fighting with James. He had the invisibility cloak and to make it even worse, Sirius had the map. Sure, it was still a bit faulty, but it was definitely better than nothing. Then again, it didn't matter much. There was no way she would've shown either object to Evans. Why _was_ she in the corridor, anyway?

"You're planning something aren't you?" Evans stopped, turning to Jamie.

Jamie, who had no intention of getting caught chatting with the girl, continued on. "I'm sorry?" She didn't turn her head while addressing Evans. What was she even talking about? And why wouldn't she just shut up? Wasn't she supposed to be smart or something? "I'm trying to get back to the Common Room."

"I heard what Kammi Boot said in detention. You're planning something."

"I'm not planning anything."

"I think you are."

"Shut. Up. Evans." The person might be gone for now but whoever it was couldn't be far away.

"You're worse than the others, you know. Sirius and James? You beat both of them _easily_ when it comes to arrogance and idiocy…"

"Think you could write that down for me? Thanks. Oh, and shut up while doing it, will you?"

"Don't even get me started on annoyingness!" Evans continued, ignoring Jamie's requests.

"I don't even think that's a word."

"This is all your fault," Evans whispered, right behind her, "All your fault as usual, Potter."

"Really?" Jamie asked innocently, "I guess I'm sorry then. Must have missed the part where I woke you up and dragged you out of bed in the middle of the night. I'll be sure to pay better attention next time."

"Just shut up, will you?"

"So you do know the meaning of those words?" Jamie stopped abruptly, turning around to face the redhead. They were about the same size. "I was beginning to think that those words didn't exist in your vocabulary. Think you can find a mirror and repeat them before you wake up the entire castle?"

Without waiting for an answer, she started walking again. A couple of seconds later, Evans started following, only to be stopped when Jamie did a 180 and pushed Evans back the way they had come. A couple of Slytherins were sitting on a windowsill down the next corridor. It must have been the ones she had heard earlier.

"What?"

Jamie put a finger to her lips, prompting her to keep quiet once again. As a safety precaution she took out her wand. That way she could defend herself against the Slytherins _and_ she could hex Evans if the girl refrained from keeping her mouth shut. It would be no problem, hexing her.

Normally, Jamie wouldn't have shied away from a confrontation with a couple of Slytherins, but they were both Seventh Years and one of them was Head Boy. He was allowed out _and_ he could give her as many detentions as he saw fit.

Instead, Jamie signalled to Evans that they should start going back the way they had come and find another way up to the Common Room. They started backtracking when the voices behind them became louder. The corridor was exceedingly long. They wouldn't make it in time. With a frustrated grown, Jamie took hold of Evans' arm and started dragging her towards a tapestry on the wall. There was a hidden alcove behind it. Despite the girl's protests, Jamie managed to get her in there just in time before the Slytherins rounded the corner.

It was dark inside the alcove so she couldn't see Evans' face. She bet it was quite comical. Jamie couldn't imagine the redhead going on any sort of adventures, trying to figure out the secrets of the castle.

Both girls kept quiet while the Slytherins walked past. When ten minutes had passed in relative silence, they exited the alcove.

"I'll not insult your intelligence by telling you to keep quiet about this," Jamie said, knowing full well that that was exactly what she was in the middle of doing, "If anybody asks you how you found it, you'll have to tell them about your midnight excursion, and I don't think you want to do that."

"I know," Evans answered simply, before continuing more quietly, "You didn't have to do that, you know. You didn't have to help me. You could have left me out in the corridor."

"I know."

"Then why did you?" Evans paused and crossed her arms, making Jamie stop as well. She silently cursed the redhead and her stubbornness. Why did she have to question everything?

"Because…" Jamie started slowly, sending Evans a smile. "Now you owe me." And _boy_ would she hate owing Evans anything, had the roles been reversed.

The redhead opened her mouth, about to protest, but then closed it again. Jamie was right and she knew it. "Fine." Evans uncrossed her arms. "What do you want?"

"Oh…" Jamie shuffled her feet for a bit, smirking, "Nothing right now. I'll think of something, don't you worry. I'll make sure to let you know." With those words, she left Evans, taking off down another corridor.

"What are you doing?" the girl called after her, "You're going in the wrong direction!"

Jamie turned the corner without answering her. She'd had enough of Evans for one evening. The girl didn't know about any of the other secret passageways. She'd reach the Common Room ages before the redhead.

* * *

 **AN: As always, I'd love to hear what you think :-)**


	5. The Breakfast Meeting

**AN: Once again, thanks for the lovely reviews and for following the story :-)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5 – The Breakfast Meeting**

"The food is getting cold."

"Sorry?

"The food," Sirius repeated, pointing at Jamie's untouched plate, "It's getting cold."

Remus followed his gaze, putting away the book he had been reading. "So it is," he remarked, "I wonder where she is."

It was Saturday morning and Jamie still hadn't decided to show her face. It was quite remarkable considering the fact that she would have gotten way more sleep than the others. They had managed to find most of the Fire Crabs but it had taken a tremendously long time. Hagrid thought that there were more out there but he could hardly keep them any longer. By the time Sirius had gone to bed, daylight had started creeping in the windows.

"She's still mad at us," James said through a mouthful of cereal.

"Doesn't usually keep her away from breakfast." Sirius cast another look at Jamie's plate before returning his attention to his own. He wasn't worried about her. Jamie was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. James was the one who couldn't see that, not Sirius.

"She was in detention last night, wasn't she?" Sure enough, James wasn't ready to drop the subject just yet. Sirius shouldn't have said anything.

"With Slughorn, yeah."

"It's weird she isn't here yet, isn't it?"

"Perhaps she simply stole food from the kitchens," Sirius answered, "As you said, she is still mad at us. Probably trying to avoid us. Nothing weird about that."

"You really should try to make up," Remus said, "I'm getting tired of my best friends fighting."

"Even though it gives you more time to read?" Sirius asked.

"Even though it gives me more time to read," Remus confirmed.

"Just saying…" Sirius had never understood what was so appealing about books, but Remus seemed to enjoy reading – as did Jamie. People always assumed that James and Jamie were completely alike but if you knew them, you'd know that they were very different from each other when it came to certain things. James hated reading unless it was the newspaper.

"But she always comes down for breakfast." James wrinkled his nose, looking up at the entrance as if expecting to see Jamie walk in right that moment. "Perhaps the girls know something."

Sirius couldn't help rolling his eyes. Leave it to James to find an excuse to talk to Lily. As if she would know anything about Jamie. It didn't stop his mate though. He was already shuffling down the bench to get closer to the girls. Crouch, who was sitting nearest, gave him an unimpressed look.

"What is it Potter?" The redhead didn't even look up as she talked to him. She'd always been stuck-up that girl. Sirius really didn't understand what his friend saw in her. Sure, opposites attracted, but James and Evans? Sirius could understand Jamie's frustration. It was hard to imagine James being happy with the girl.

"Haven't seen my cousin have you?" Jamie sent a smile in Evans' direction, a smile that she pointedly ignored.

Sirius would have rolled his eyes again if not for Evans' slight pause upon turning the page in her book. It really was the slightest of pauses but it was enough to catch his attention. She didn't answer as she turned the page, but she did put in her bookmark and closed it afterwards.

When the girl failed to answer, McKinnon said, "She wasn't in the dorm this morning. Must have been up early."

Silence fell over the group hereafter. Everyone – and that included the girls who shared a dorm with her – knew that Jamie never got out of bed early on a Saturday morning. She preferred to sleep in.

"She's probably planning some new way to bother us all," Crouch suggested with disdain in her voice, "She's always scheming, that one."

"None of you have seen her?" Remus asked slowly, looking at each girl in turn, "Which one of you were up first?"

Another pause in conversation, and Sirius audibly sighed. Why were girls always so difficult to talk to?

"I was."

Sirius almost missed the statement and it took him a couple of seconds to realise that MacDonald had spoken.

"I was up at 7," she almost whispered, "I didn't see her then."

"7 o'clock was three and a half hours ago," James stated, looking at his watch.

Sirius could practically see his worry increase as he looked at him. "Perhaps she had an early breakfast," he suggested, still trying to brush away the subject. There was nothing wrong with Jamie. Jamie was able to take care of herself. She probably _was_ planning something. A way to get back at them or something… to get her revenge… Or something…

They could simply check the map. Sirius had the map. It was in their dormitory and it would be way faster than trying to get anything out of the girls. He tried signalling to James, but the boy simply ignored him.

"Why would she be up so early if she had detention last night? She must have been tired, and it's a Saturday morning." James was looking at Remus and Sirius in turn as if they had the answer. She was probably out flying, or… something. She could be avoiding them. Perhaps she was in the library.

"When did she go to sleep last night?" Remus asked at last, always trying to look at things rationally.

The girls looked at each other before shrugging.

"Early or late?" Remus tried again.

"Lily was in detention with her last night," McKinnon said at last, ignoring the look the redhead was sending her way. "You were," she whispered, "You must have been the last one who saw her."

"I – " Evans stuttered, "Yes, I was."

So that's why she had paused earlier, Sirius thought. Evans in detention? Had it not been for Jamie Sirius would have pestered her some more about it. As it was… Evans seemed to know something. She must have been the last one who saw her. Perhaps they'd hexed each other, and Jamie had been sent to Madam Pomfrey. It wouldn't be the first time one of them ended up in the Hospital Wing.

"We were in detention, yes…"

"Well…?" James was giving Evans an inquiring look.

"We were in detention, what else do you expect me to say?" Evans looked away and grabbed hold of her pumpkin juice.

"How about what happened? Did you get into a fight? I don't care, just tell me." He really wasn't good at not worrying. Then again… It _was_ Jamie and James always did worry when it came to his cousin. Sirius had no idea why. As he'd said earlier, the girl was perfectly capable of taking care of herself

"Really, Potter, you should know your own cousin better than that! No, we did not get in to a fight, not in the middle of detention. She's probably off somewhere, planning something. I heard her and Kammi Boot talk about it last night."

"You did?" James looked sceptical, and he wasn't the only one. There was no way Jamie would have been so careless about one of her plans.

"Yes, I remember it quite clearly. They were whispering together."

"They were whispering?" James furrowed his brow.

"Yes, and when I asked her about it, she denied it."

This time, Sirius didn't refrain from rolling his eyes, "She denied it?" he asked, "And therefore she was lying? That's what you're going with?"

"Of course."

Sirius really did not understand that girl's logic. James really should find some other girl to fancy.

"Who else did she talk to?" Remus inquired, "There must have been other people than you, Jamie and Kammi Boot."

"Sure…" Evans shrugged her shoulders, "I think she… Yeah, she definitely talked to Peter Pettigrew as well."

"Peter Pettigrew?" Remus repeated looking questioningly at Sirius and James, "Are you sure?"

"Definitely. I thought it was a bit weird at the time, but what do I care? If she likes hanging out with blood prejudiced Slytherins, who am I to judge? Sure, she doesn't want me hanging out with Severus and tells me off when I do, but if she's got a soft spot for Pettigrew, why should I – "

"For Merlin's sake!" James rose and slammed his hand unto the table causing Evans to spill pumpkin juice all over her plate. She looked upwards and met his gaze. No doubt she wasn't used to James looking at her like _that_.

"You're hiding something," James said.

"I…"

"That look, right there – " James pointed at her face, "It's the same one you give me every time you turn me down. When you lie about your plans, pretending to be busy when I ask you out. You're hiding something and I want to know what. Enough with all this blabbering on about Jamie and Pettigrew."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Evans was becoming increasingly redder in the face but apart from this, she showed no signs of backing down. Sirius caught Remus' gaze. They both knew where this was going, and neither of them could do anything to stop it. Honestly… Sirius didn't really want to. He would much rather find out where Jamie was and if Evans knew anything, Sirius wasn't going to defend her. If Jamie had been talking to the snakes – even though it was only Pettigrew – who knew what else she'd gotten herself into?

"You're lying to me," James whispered.

"I am _not_." Evans slowly rose to her feet, meeting the bespeckled boy face to face, "And if you don't stop accusing me, I'll report you to professor McGonagall."

"And I'll tell her the same thing I'm telling you right now: you're lying."

"I'm not – "

"Don't lie!" James yelled, "Not about Jamie."

His tone seemed to catch her off guard, and she took a deep breath before looking down at the mess that used to be her breakfast. "Fine," she answered, looking up at James, meeting his gaze. "Fine. Who am I to keep her secrets anyway? I _did_ see her last night. Around 1 am in the corridors. Don't know what she was doing there – don't really care to tell you the truth. We exchanged a few words and then…"

"Then?" James prompted.

"We stopped…" Evans continued, "Because there were… someone else in the corridor."

"Who?"

Evans didn't answer. She looked at Gabriella who for once had nothing to say. Clearly she hadn't told the girls any of this. They knew just as little as the boys. It almost looked as though she was embarrassed. But about what?

"Who?" repeated James.

"Slytherins," she said at last as if something was just starting to dawn upon her.

Sirius whipped his head up to look at her, as did Remus and the girls. They'd been confronted by Slytherins? And Evans was just telling them now?

"Slytherins…" James repeated. "What Slytherins?"

"I don't know," Evans answered slowly. "I didn't see them. Pott – Jamie did."

James looked as if he was about to start yelling again, until Remus quickly laid a hand on his arm, "Shouting won't help us find her."

James took a deep breath before continuing. "What happened afterwards? Did they find you? Did you hide from them? You're still here… obviously." His voice sounded accusing.

"We hid," Evans replied quickly, "And then we… parted ways. She went in one direction and I in another. I don't know where she went. She didn't say, she just walked away. What was I supposed to do?" When no one said anything, Evans continued, trying to defend herself. " _She_ left _me_. It wasn't the other way around."

"So…" James said slowly, for once not looking at Evans with admiration in his eyes, "You're saying you saw her last night, around 1 am outside in the corridors… You parted ways but when you returned she wasn't back in the dorm, and she wasn't there this morning? Was her bed even slept in?"

"I… don't know."

"You don't know?" James looked at her with incredulous eyes, "You didn't even check? You care so little about her that you'll disregard the fact that she could've been attacked by Slytherins?"

"That's not fair," Crouch protested.

Sirius suddenly remembered Jamie's words from Halloween, from the night they'd been fighting: " _All these Pure-bloods telling me that I don't deserve to be here."_ A bad taste settled in his mouth and he, too, looked at Evans with slight apprehension in his eyes.

"I didn't think that she was in any danger," Evans continued defending herself, "Why would they hurt her? She's a Pure-blood. She may be a Gryffindor but she's still a Potter."

"She's right," Remus cut in, "If they would have gone after someone, surely they would have gone after Lily…" He trailed of, looking at James, as did the rest of the group.

"Well…" James started slowly.

"I'm sure there's no reason to worry," McKinnon agreed, "If Lily's all right, Jamie must be as well. Pure-blood versus Muggle-born? They would have gone for the Muggle-born."

"You don't understand," James tried again.

"We know you're worried," Remus said, "We're all worried."

Sirius looked up at James. He didn't look the least bit reassured, but he didn't contradict them either. Yet there was something about the way he kept looking between them and the Slytherins that didn't seem quite right… It was almost as if _he_ was keeping something from them, something he wanted to say but didn't seem to know how. Sure, Jamie was a Gryffindor and _sure_ the slithering snakes did bully her, but they went after Sirius as well and he was a Black. They went after everyone in Gryffindor and they were all Pure-bloods, except for Evans, of course, who was Muggle-born, and Remus, who was a Half-blood. If they were to attack anyone, it would be Evans and Remus, not the Pure-bloods. At least not to start with.

James took a deep breath, about to say something, when a voice made him stop.

"Why, are we having a Gryffindor brunch party and no one invited me?"

Sirius turned around, as did the others, and there, right next to them, was Jamie. Her hair was wet and tied back with a hairband. She was wearing one of her dresses as she so often did on the weekends.

"Boy-girl bonding time?" She looked around the table, "On second thought… Perhaps I'm glad you didn't include me."

"Jamie?" James' voice was hoarse as he stepped forward and quickly pulled her into a hug.

"Nice to see you… too," she trailed off sending Sirius and Remus questioning looks behind his back, "Speaking now, are we?"

The hug lasted all of five seconds, before James pulled away and pushed her at arm's length, looking straight into her eyes "Where in Merlin's name have you been?"

"Me?" Jamie scrunched up her nose, "I've been to the library? Why? Is there something I've forgotten about?"

"The library?"

"It's the place where they keep books, James, I can show you someday when you're feeling up to it."

Marlene snorted, effectively ending the awkward silence, though they were still looking at her, everyone, except for Evans who was staring down at the table.

"Food!" Jamie had noticed the untouched plate of food and sat down, "I'm starving."

"Why were you in the library?" James was still standing, looking suspiciously at her. Sirius didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but then again… She was Jamie and he was James. Perhaps he'd noticed something the rest of them hadn't.

"I was meeting Kammi. We wanted to get an early start on the big Herbology assignment.

"On an early Saturday morning?"

"Yeah." Jamie took a huge bite of her muffin and smiled at Remus, "Thank you for saving me some food. You're the best."

"You're welcome," Remus replied slowly.

Jamie munched for a bit, before commenting, "You're all staring at me."

No one answered her.

"Seriously, have I missed something?" She looked up from her breakfast, looking at the boys in turn, before turning her gaze towards the girls, "Having joined breakfast now, are we? Did someone start dating and forget to tell me about it?" Her tone was light but she looked accusingly towards Evans as she said it. The girl in question immediately rose to her feet, ignoring everyone.

"Speaking of the library," she said, "I should probably get a start on my assignments as well. Gabriella?" She looked at Crounch, prompting her to follow her. The girl shot to her feet immediately, sending a flirtatious look at Sirius before leaving the table along with Evans.

"Okay then," Jamie trilled, starting on her pancakes, "Anyone seen the syrup?" She looked around, finally locating it next to Remus who seemed to shake himself out of a reverie.

Jamie sent Sirius a brilliant smile before turning her attention to the pancakes. It was at that exact moment, Sirius looked up at the doors to the entrance. Out walked Evans and Crouch and in walked Dorcas Meadowes and Kammi Boot. They were covered in mud all over, brooms slung across their shoulders. It all happened very quickly: Crouch continued on, but Evans stopped in her tracks, staring after Boot as she made her way towards the Ravenclaw table. Sirius met Evans' gaze across the Hall, causing James and Remus to turn around as well, both noticing Boot as she chose that precise moment to let out a bark of laughter.

"You should have seen me," her voice carried across the tables, "I must have beat her five times in a row. You really should practice more, Dorcas, or we'll lose the cup again this year."

Sirius looked back at Jamie who was quietly eating her pancakes, but the girl didn't say anything. He looked at James instead, waiting for him to say something – anything – but he didn't either. As a last resort, Sirius turned towards Remus, but his sandy-haired friend simply shrugged.

Sighing, Sirius returned to his own breakfast. If Kammi Boot hadn't been at the library, then where had Jamie been? And why in Merlin's name would she lie about it?

* * *

 **AN: As always, thank you for reading :-) I'd love to hear what you think :-)**


	6. Quidditch

**AN: So here it is, the sixth chapter :-) Thank you all for following the story and for your lovely reviews :-)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 – Quidditch**

"Shall we sit over there?" Remus pointed at a couple of seats in the middle of the stands, "It'll give us a good view of the pitch, I think."

It was the beginning of the Quidditch season and Remus and Jamie were as usual early up and out on the pitch to get the best seats. James and Sirius were both on the team as chaser and beater respectively. Needless to say, Quidditch was very important to the Marauders and they all loved the game, though Remus and Jamie didn't play.

"Sure, looks good." Jamie let Remus lead her over and they sat down, huddling together against the wind. It was a rather grey day but at least it wasn't raining.

"We should bring blankets next time," Jamie said through chattering teeth.

"Or become better at Heating Spells."

"We should do both," Jamie agreed, nodding her head, "Definitely both. And we could bring hot chocolate, too!"

"Hot chocolate's an absolute must." Remus smiled. "I like your way of thinking."

Things had gone back to normal rather quickly after the breakfast debacle. Jamie didn't know exactly what had happened, but whatever it was, had made them all forget their quarrel and it was as if it had never happened in the first place. Sometimes, she caught one of the boys staring at her as though afraid she'd suddenly disappear but she simply shrugged it off. There was no way they knew. She hadn't told them about her run-in with the Slytherins, and she wasn't going to. They'd only worry and she could handle the Slytherins on her own. Why would she make them worry unnecessarily? They'd become overly protective and go after the Slytherins (more than they already did), and Jamie would never hear the end of it.

"I'm going to need your help with Potions later on," she commented, "Slughorn's given us an impossible assignment, and I've no idea what to do."

"Which one are you talking about?" Remus was getting a bag of Chocolate Frogs out of his pocket and wasn't paying attention to much else.

"The impossible one," Jamie stated as though that was fairly obvious.

"Yeah, but when it comes to you and Potions I'd think they were all impossible."

Jamie slapped him but all Remus did was laugh. To make him shut up she took a Chocolate Frog out of his bag to which he frowned. "Remind me again why I'm friends with you," she said.

"Because I'm awesome at Potions and you suck at it?" Remus suggested, holding the bag of Chocolate Frogs protectively against his chest.

"Fair enough." Jamie took a bite of the Frog and turned over the card in her hand, "Nicolas Flamel," she commented disappointingly, "I always get Nicolas Flamel."

"That's what you get for stealing my chocolate."

"I didn't steal anything," Jamie defended herself, "We're friends, Remus, remember that? Friends are entitled to other friends' chocolate."

"No, they're not," Remus snorted.

"Well, _I_ am. Really, it was a fault on your part that you didn't just give me some. A bit rude to tell you the truth."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

Remus looked at her before rolling his eyes, holding out the bag to her. "Take another one, then," he said.

She sent him her most dazzling smile, peering down into the bag. Choosing a Chocolate Frog was an important task. "Which one of you do _not_ look like a 600-and-something-year-old wizard?" she mused out loud before picking a rather innocent-looking frog out of the mix.

"You do know that they look exactly the same, right?"

"Of course they don't," Jamie admonished them, peeling away the paper and putting the Frog in her mouth before it had a chance to jump away. She turned over the card and let out a triumphant noise. "Alberic Grunnion," she exclaimed delightedly – and almost incoherently due to the chocolate.

"Who in Merlin's name is Alberic Grunnion?" Remus asked, taking the card out of her hand to get a look at it.

"He's the one who invented the Dungbomb."

"And just how do you know that?"

"Well… For one it says so on the card," Jamie teased him, "Buuut, it also says so on the packages, Remus. Honestly! You're the one who always open them, declaring we'll accidentally set them off in the process."

"That's because you wouldn't do it 'accidentally' and while you may find it funny, _I_ am the one who has to sleep in the dorm. You can go back to your non-stinking dorm."

"I wouldn't call it non-stinking." Jamie wrinkled her nose. "I live with four other girls, remember? Try imagining that room at the break of perfume-hour."

"I still think I'd go for the perfume, but fair point."

The stands were slowly beginning to fill. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff stands were the ones with most people in them. They were the ones playing each other and naturally, they were the ones most engaged in the match. There were quite a lot of Ravenclaws as well but not a lot of Slytherins. Only the most Quidditch-enthusiastic turned up to watch Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff so early on in the season. Jamie couldn't help but wonder which team they'd hope for to win. They hated Gryffindors but they also thought that Hufflepuffs were a bunch of rainbow-loving fools.

Jamie avoided looking at the Slytherins, not wanting to catch them sneering at her and the other Muggle-borns. How much did they know anyway? Jamie had no idea. Honestly, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. What was she to do about it anyway?

It was her own choice not to tell anyone her sob story. She didn't want people pitying her especially since she didn't pity herself. Not a day had gone by where she was neglected. She went straight from one loving household to another. Her parents had loved her until that fateful day and the Potters' had loved her ever since that day. She became Jamie Potter and she was absolutely fine with that. Jamie Smith was a person of the past. Sure, perhaps she hadn't taken things so lightly back then, back when it was all happening, but that was a long time ago and she had since then come to realise that she was better off without people who couldn't accept her for who she was. It was part of the reason why she hated Slytherins as much as she did. Jamie had a rather low tolerance for people who prejudiced others based on their heritage.

Still, she'd chosen not to share her story with anyone. She'd told James before they departed for their first year that she didn't want anyone to know. James had been understanding and it was even him that came up with the cover story: her parents had immigrated to the US because of work, but they'd wanted Jamie to go to Hogwarts, to get the same education that they had gotten. She therefore spent part of her Holidays with the Potters, part of them with her parents when they weren't busy. Sure, the story wasn't ideal but people bought it easily. No one suspected her of lying, because why should she? The only really risky bit was the part where they'd pretended that their fathers were siblings instead of their mothers. There was no other way to explain why her name was Potter and not something else. She'd never mentioned anything about her brothers or the fact that she even had any.

The only thing she felt really guilty about was not telling Sirius and Remus. Especially when they'd all found out that Remus was a werewolf. It would have been the perfect opportunity, but honestly, she felt much more sorry for Remus than she did for herself. He was a _werewolf_ , he had to endure pain every month whereas herself? She didn't suffer. She had her aunt Euphemia and her uncle Fleamont not to talk about James. James who loved her and James who'd do anything for her. She didn't want for anything, so why should she compare her story to sweet and innocent Remus'?

Still, she probably should have told them at some point. Sirius complained about his family all the time. Any of those times would have been ideal, but as time had passed it became more and more awkward to bring it up. Now, more than four years had past, and Jamie had simply decided to bury it all. James never nagged her about it, never tried to make her feel guilty about not telling their friends. Which was why she'd been so surprised when he brought it up.

It was a couple of weeks after they'd started talking again and he'd caught her alone in the library. He'd sat down at her desk and sprung it upon her out of the blue. Sure, he probably thought he was being really discreet but to Jamie it had come as a big surprise.

"Why do you want me to tell them all of a sudden?" Jamie had asked him accusingly, immediately rising to her feet, "You've never said anything before."

"No reason. I was just… you know… wondering." James Potter, articulate as always.

Jamie raised her eyebrow at him. He was lying through his teeth and he never lied to her.

"I just thought it might be safer if more people knew," he said at last, "What if something happened to you? The Slytherins are becoming bolder, you know."

"So?" Jamie asked, "They don't know anything either." She avoided his eyes as she said this, pretending to look for some book on the shelves. Jamie knew that the Slyhterins suspected something wasn't quite right about her story, and she knew that James knew this as well. It was why the Slyhterins were always bothering her, suspecting that her blood wasn't as pure as she let the world to believe. It was another drawback to her story. Jamie didn't care about being a Muggle-born. The only reason she pretended to be a Pure-blood was because she didn't want people to know the real story about her parents and about the embarrassment of being discarded like a shoebox. Really, people had always had something against her because of her blood. Bigoted wizards regarded her blood as tainted because it wasn't completely magical. To her parents, she was tainted because it wasn't completely non-magical. It was all utterly ridiculous. Blood didn't make a wizard, magic did.

James sent her a sorrowful look. She really did hate pity.

"Stop it, James."

He kept looking at her, and she turned around to face him.

"Stop it," she repeated, more forcefully this time. "The Slytherins don't know anything." Lie. "They've never come after me." Lie. "I'm completely fine, so stop talking about it!"

"All right, all right, I will," James raised his hands in surrender, "But I still think you should consider telling Sirius and Remus. If there are two people at this school who know about hardship, it's them. They won't think any differently of you, Jamie, they care about you."

"Do you think Crouch is ever going to give up?"

Jamie was torn out of her thoughts by Remus. "What?" she asked stupidly, not having heard a word he just said.

"Crouch," Remus repeated, "Do you think she's ever going to give up?"

He was talking about Crouch's infatuation with Sirius. It wasn't like Remus to gossip but that morning had given them another cringe-worthy moment to store away with all the other cringe-worthy moments regarding Gabriella Crouch's long (and cringe-worthy) pursuit of Sirius Black.

On this particular morning, Crouch had sauntered up to them during breakfast declaring that she'd do all she could to make people cheer loudly for Sirius.

Sirius had then proceeded to ask – gracefully and with a mouth full of bacon - whether she thought people needed encouragement to cheer for him. This had, naturally, turned her into a stumbling fool, replying that "Of course not, Sirius, that's not what I meant, Sirius, you're amazing, Sirius." When the A-word slipped out of her mouth, silence had fallen over the table right before the sniggering began. Instantly realising what she'd said, Crouch turned on her heel – bright red in the face – and fallen down, knocking off her Gryffindor-supporter hat in the process.

Sirius – who'd laughed – had put the cheery on top by asking her if she was "honestly going to wear those monstrosities down on the pit." 'The monstrosities', of course, referred to Crouch's ridiculously high heels, which she wore all the time to make up for her ridiculously small height. Jamie, Remus, and James had had to watch as she – literally – crawled away, using the bench to heave herself up again. Evans had been by her side, instantly, sending daggers at Sirius, which he didn't see. He'd turned his attention to something far more interesting a.k.a. his breakfast.

It was common knowledge that Crouch was head over heels in love with Sirius. She'd always been uncommonly interested in him – he was the best-looking boy in their year – but towards the end of Fourth year, Jamie had come to realise that perhaps there was more behind her pursuit than a single possessive need to have Sirius in her clutches. Endlessly encounters afterwards had done nothing but proof this point.

"I don't know," Jamie said, "After the back-to-school-present, I thought she'd given up, but…"

"She didn't," Remus finished her sentence, both of them taking a moment to remember the gift she'd bought for him in September and – more importantly – the card that came with it: 'I saw this during the Holidays and it made me think of you.' That was all. No greeting, no explanation, not anything to suggest why a book titled _Panda Bears And Baby Pygmy Puffs_ made her think of him. Nothing.

"I honestly felt sorry for her this morning," Jamie said, which made Remus raise his eyebrow at her.

"I know," she said, "I know… It surprised me as well, but she fell, and he was laughing, and _she_ was practically crying and then there was the matter of… her nails."

"What about her nails?"

"She had written his name on them."

"On her nails?" Remus obviously didn't understand the finer arts of nail polishing.

"Yeah," Jamie said, "Didn't you see?"

Remus frowned at her. "Why in Merlin's name would I be looking at her nails?"

Jamie tsked, "Never pay any attention to details, huh? She had written his first name on one hand and his last name on the other, only she needed 11 characters and only had room for 10. Therefore, instead of 'Sirius Black', she had ended up spelling "Siriu Slack. She probably hoped no one would notice the missing 'B'".

"Siriu Slack," Remus repeated, trying – and failing – to keep a straight face.

"I know," Jamie said, making an effort not to laugh, herself. In the end, they both failed, clutching their sides and promising to call him 'Slack' sometime in the near future.

"Poor girl," Remus said at last, and Jamie couldn't help but agree. She still couldn't stand her, but teasing her these days had become way to easy. She'd even refrained from laughing at her that morning. Partly because she was making it too easy, and partly because Sirius was behaving like an uncivilised pig.

"Why she doesn't go after some other guy, I'll never understand," Jamie said at last, "She's beautiful and usually rather smart when not occupying herself with Sirius-related matters. It's only in front of him that she makes a fool of herself."

"She really must like him."

"If that were the case, she should stop trying so hard. Not that it'll change Sirius' opinion of her, but still… It would be less pathetic to watch." Jamie sighed, huddling closer to Remus in the stands, changing the subject. "If we don't win this match," she said to him, "I'm seriously going to slap them." 'Them' being James and Sirius. It wasn't for her own amusement she was sitting outside on an early November morning. It was bitingly cold, and the wind didn't help either.

"Honestly, the only thing we're missing is the rain," she continued.

"Don't jinx it, Jamie!"

The bespectacled girl looked up to find Alice Fortescue sitting down next to her. Alice was a Sixth-year Gryffindor and had always been on friendly terms with Jamie and the boys. Her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, was on the Quidditch team along with James and Sirius. He was in Seventh year and although Jamie didn't know him quite as well as the boys did, she knew him to be a very agreeable fellow. Never dated anyone except for Alice whom he was head over heels in love with.

"I'm not superstitious," Jamie told her, "Besides, I really don't think it's going to rain. The clouds aren't dark enough."

"Whatever," Alice answered, "I don't know about the clouds, but if you say so. What's going on with your cousin and that Evans-girl by the way?"

"You're moving into dangerous territory," Remus warned her from Jamie's other side, "I'd retreat as soon as possible, if I were you."

"Nothing's happening," Jamie cut off, sending Remus a cold glare, "They're not seeing each other. They're not spending time together. They're not even talking – and before you say anything – they're not sending each other letters either." It was true although Jamie knew that the rumours were out there.

Since Jamie had started speaking to James again, he had not as much as looked at Lily Evans. At least he hadn't in her presence. It was almost as though he was ignoring her, though Jamie couldn't understand why that would be. Just because James might have had a slight infatuation with her it did not mean that Evans welcomed it in any way. Thankfully, Evans hated James as much as she hated Jamie, and avoided him as much as possible. It only made the whole thing appear even weirder but it wasn't as if Jamie was going to start questioning James about it. She would not encourage him.

"If that is the case…" Alice said and dropped the subject, Jamie choosing to ignore the doubt in her voice and the questioning looks she was sending Remus.

"Sooo… Think we're going to win?"

Jamie turned towards Remus instantly, thankful for a topic-change, " _Of course_ we're going to win," she admonished him, "What a strange question."

"You never know what's going to happen," he teased.

"We're playing Hufflepuff," she stated, as if that were answer enough, "Since when do we lose to Hufflepuff? It's like playing against unicorns. They might fly but it's impossible for them to throw a ball."

Remus looked as though he was about to admonish her, but Alice cut in before he had the chance.

"We lost last year," she coughed, before sending Jamie a fond smile, "But I do appreciate your loyalty to our upmost wonderful team."

"It's because of that beater they've gotten," Jamie growled, "He's a bit too good. Which makes me wonder what he's doing in Hufflepuff. Shouldn't Hufflepuffs be against throwing things at other people's heads? At the very least, they shouldn't be _good_ at it."

"He isn't as good as Sirius," Remus stated as the players flew onto the pitch, "But I do admit he's very good."

"No one's better than Sirius," Jamie stated at the same time that Alice commented, "Not yet."

"I'm just saying," Alice defended herself upon receiving Jamie's death glare, "He's only a Fourth year. I wish I were here to see the match when Sirius's a Seventh year and the Hufflepuff-boy is a Sixth year. Now _that_ will be a match to look out for!"

"No one's as good as Sirius," Jamie repeated, crossing her arms.

"You're very cute, you know," Alice smiled, patting Jamie's head as though she was a child, "Becoming all cross when someone starts questioning your friends."

Jamie instantly uncrossed her arms, and slapped away Alice's hand.

"Just like a puppy," Alice laughed, and Jamie stuck her tongue out at her.

Jamie was about to say something, when they both quieted down at the sight of Evans entering the stands along with Crouch and MacDonald. They looked around and chose some seats a couple of rows in front of Jamie, Remus, and Alice.

"Since when does Evans watch Quidditch?" Jamie asked. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her at a match. She never came, not even to cheer on her friend, Marlene. It was another thing Jamie didn't understand about Evans. How could you not be into Quidditch?

"I don't know," Alice answered although her tone very much suggested that she had a good idea.

"Don't start," Jamie interrupted before she had a chance to say anything, "Nothing's going on between them. If anything was, don't you think I'd be the first person to know?"

"Do _you_?" Alice's words weren't maliciously intended but still they gave Jamie an unpleasant feeling in her stomach. Surely, James would tell her if he intended to ask Evans out? Really ask her out, not just in a pretend-to-ask-her-out-way. Then again, he hadn't opened up about his feelings for her before, had he? Jamie admonished herself, chasing the thoughts away. She didn't want to think about that. James wasn't even sending Evans looks anymore, so why should she, Jamie, bother herself with it?

"Let's just watch the game, shall we?" Remus asked, giving Jamie's hand a squeeze, "I think they're about to start."

* * *

 **AN: Again, thank you all so much for reading. I hope you liked the chapter, as always I'd love to hear your opinion :-)**

 **I don't know for sure whether Alice's last name really** _ **is**_ **Fortescue but as it seems to be the common theory I chose to go with it as well.**


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